Experimentation
by Missyhissy3
Summary: "You're making it sound like I go looking for trouble, Chakotay!" Set Season Five, after 'Thirty Days'.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Paramount clearly owns all the characters. Copyright: Paramount

Big thank you to northernexposure for her beta read and for her encouragement.

Warning: Not graphic at all, but contains suggestions that some may find disturbing. If you are uncomfortable with the idea of alien doctors experimenting then this story isn't for you.

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><p><span>Chapter One<span>

"Get the station administrator on screen now."

Despite the calm manner of its delivery, the sense of urgency infusing the first officer's order was unmistakable. Kim was already on task before Chakotay had finished his sentence and the tension that had already been building on the bridge in the last few minutes rose another notch.

"I've got him, sir. Channel open."

The pale face of the bushy haired and bearded hulk of a man filled the viewscreen. He had the height and possibly the weight of a Nausicaan, but the lack of discernible musculature gave him a sort of squidgy, pillow-like appearance.

"Good evening, Commander. How can I help you?"

"A few minutes ago our captain and chief engineer's bio-signatures suddenly disappeared from our sensors - it appears they are no longer on your station. At the same time we detected signs of a ship using cloaking technology. With that in mind we're obviously concerned about our crew member's whereabouts and their safety."

There was a pause while the administrator's eyes flickered to the side, presumably to another monitor. "And what do you want me to do about it?"

Chakotay's grip on the back of Paris's chair tightened, but his tone remained even. "We're asking for your help in locating them."

"Look, Commander…" he looked away again for a second, "_Chakotay_, this is a very busy station, and I am a busy man. I'm sure you have the resources to search for them yourself, with your impressive vessel and undoubtedly advanced sensors. Perhaps it's simply a communication malfunction."

Chakotay moved out from his position slightly to the right of Paris's chair to stand centre bridge. "All our systems are functioning perfectly." He turned and motioned to Tuvok and Kim as he continued speaking, "Our chief of security, Commander Tuvok and our operations officer are beaming to your location, they'll be with you in a few minutes." Both men were already boarding the turbolift.

"I'm still not sure what you expect me to do here."

"I'm presuming that you're interested in maintaining the good reputation of your trading station; that you want visitors to believe they are safe when they're using your facility. Visitors who've all _paid_ the substantial 'donation' you require for docking. So I'm sure you'll do everything you can to help us find our captain and chief engineer."

The administrator appeared unmoved. "You were given a copy of our disclaimer when you completed the docking procedure. You use our communal facilities at your own risk – obviously. I can't stop people transporting off the station any more than I can stop them using cloaking technology."

"I presume you monitor transporter activity? Keep a log?"

"You presume correctly, Commander."

"Well Commander Tuvok will need to see it. As well as your surveillance recordings."

The administrator cocked his head to one side and arched a bushy eyebrow. "Our log will only show the location and destination of any transport – if there was one. It won't prove anything. How do you know they didn't go willingly? Two beautiful women in search of some… companionship?"

_He certainly remembers them then,_ thought Chakotay. He succeeded in keeping the greater part of the contempt he was feeling for this man out of his voice as he responded.

"Neither our captain nor our chief engineer would leave the station without contacting us. We have strict protocols we observe on away missions."

The voluminous administrator gave a dismissive shrug and closed the channel.


	2. Chapter 2

B'Elanna opened her eyes to white light again, and registered almost immediately this time that she was back in the cell.

Two days, she reckoned. Must be that long at least by now.

She continued to lie on her back and stare at the ceiling. Within seconds she'd taken an internal inventory. Still no broken bones, no significant pain. Just that lingering ache in her abdomen. A headache still, and stiffness, always stiffness, that was all. Probably from being so damn inactive.

She turned her head to look across to the bunk where Janeway lay. Her eyes were still closed. She was usually a few minutes behind Torres in regaining consciousness. B'Elanna thought how surprisingly peaceful she looked. Probably getting more rest here than she got on the ship, even if it was being forced on her by means of alien medication. Janeway's insomnia was one of the many open secrets on _Voyager._ She regularly appeared in Engineering during beta or gamma shift when she should've been asleep.

Still watching Janeway, B'Elanna turned onto her side and bent her knees up towards her chest for a moment, the posture affording her a little relief from the dull ache that persisted around her belly and lower back.

Twice now, in those moments of confusion between unconsciousness and regained lucidity, B'Elanna had looked across and thought the auburn hair she could see opposite belonged to Seska. B'Elanna presumed her mind was making this connection, not because of the complex and ambivalent feelings towards Janeway she had been experiencing recently, but more likely because this cell was of similar layout and proportions to her tiny cabin on the _Val Jean_. In addition, those nights on the Maquis ship when B'Elanna had woken to find her 'friend' sleeping on the opposite bunk – when Seska hadn't managed to manoeuver her way into the captain's cabin - were the only times in recent memory that B'Elanna had shared quarters with a woman.

Things had been tough here so far. Not physically tough. For whatever reason, their captors seemed to have decided they needed them healthy - so far. What was tough was being held in this tiny cell for hours at a time, in between the hours that were lost to them when they were taken to an adjacent room, restrained and sedated. Hours on end in this tiny cell with no means of escape and nothing to do would be tough with anyone, even with Tom - or Harry or the big guy. But now? With Janeway? _Lets just say the timing could have been better_.

B'Elanna had only just been beginning to belatedly accept some of the arguments Janeway had used to justify her decision to allow the Crell Moset hologram to operate on her against her express wishes, when the Captain had sent Tom to the brig for thirty days. For standing up for something he believed in. Something B'Elanna had indirectly encouraged him to do.

Tom. She missed him more than she'd have thought possible. One night – one too-short night. That was all they'd had before all this went down. She'd paced herself and made it through those thirty days and those thirty too-long nights without him. She'd finally allowed herself to relax a little and believe that things would start to be easier now that it was all over, when this happened…

Janeway must have had a pretty good idea that the demons she had unleashed with the Moset hologram were probably still plaguing B'Elanna. It wasn't as if she could continue to burn Klingon incense in here. The Captain had tried to initiate conversation with her about how she was feeling a few times already, probably fulfilling her duty to keep up morale. The young engineer hadn't been in a mood to be particularly forthcoming.

As B'Elanna slid her legs off the bunk and moved to a sitting position, Janeway stirred. B'Elanna leant forward to rest her elbows on her knees.

The Captain rubbed a hand over her face. Then she shifted onto her side, propping herself up on one elbow as she spoke. "Did I miss anything?"

"No. I only just came round a few minutes ago. They haven't been in yet."

"Are you feeling any better?"

"I've felt worse."

Janeway winced slightly as she pulled herself to a sitting position to mirror B'Elanna's posture. She went on, "Did you manage to get a closer look at them before they sedated you this time?"

"Yes. Did you?"

"Enough to feel pretty sure now it's the same species."

B'Elanna slid back to sit cross-legged on the narrow bunk, her back flat against the wall. "So what do you think that means for us?"

Janeway sat up straighter, one hand massaging her neck as she spoke. "I'm not sure yet. Maybe it's simply a matter of pride. I guess word got back to them that their ships were destroyed when I piloted _Voyager_ into that binary pulsar. Maybe they couldn't stand the fact that we put a stop to their little 'experiments'. Or perhaps they just wanted a chance to finish up?"

B'Elanna pressed her back further into the cool wall, feeling it soothe the ache a little as she considered this in silence for a moment before replying. "So they had us kidnapped - delivered here - and they're doing whatever it is they're doing to us now, all as some sort of elaborate revenge for those ships that were destroyed? Just to show us who's boss?"

Janeway shrugged. "Just because they appear to be technologically advanced doesn't guarantee they would have what we consider to be an advanced system of values or beliefs."

"Seems like a lot of effort for not much reward." B'Elanna stood and turned her back on the other woman to take the four steps to the small sonic shower cubicle and toilet at the other end of the cell.

"Yes, it does. But we don't know how valuable we are to them - what use our particular physiology could be to their species. In the days before their ships exploded, they had plenty of time to send transmissions to their homeworld, detailing what they'd found out about us. And I'd guess they don't get to do too many of their 'experiments' on species from the Alpha Quadrant."

B'Elanna stretched out each of her calf muscles in turn, by taking a step backwards and pressing hard into her heel.

The Captain's voice came again. "So, now we need to come up with a new plan for getting out of here. They're obviously going to be watching us even more closely in case we try anything, after what we just did."

B'Elanna paused facing the door for a second before turning again. "If they hadn't had that hidden panic button to call for back up, we'd have been out of here already."

The Captain cocked her head to one side and one side of her mouth twitched upwards a fraction in a shadow of her crooked smile "Yes, well, we know it's there now. We can plan for it next time." She fixed B'Elanna again. "You impressed me Lieutenant, I'd never realised quite how much damage a couple of hairpins and a surgical mask can do."

As Janeway's praise registered, B'Elanna smirked a little. "They may be decades ahead of us technologically, but they sure are frail. I know I snapped at least three bones and there was a hell of a lot of that bluish-purple blood of theirs everywhere. And those hours you've spent with Chakotay in the ring have definitely paid off. You broke at least one nose in there yourself."

Janeway quirked an eyebrow. "So the Commander has been bragging about training up the Captain of the ship, has he? And here was I thinking that how I spend my holodeck time was my business."

"No, actually – I didn't hear it from him. A certain operations officer was kept waiting last week while Chakotay's programme overran, and he just had to take a peak – and tell someone. Tom wasn't around, so…"

"I guess even Harry can't resist a little gossiping too, once in a while. Anyway," Janeway's next comment was punctuated by a light slap of her hands either side of her thighs, "as a second escape attempt, I think it wasn't half bad. But we need to come up with something better now. Third time lucky."

B'Elanna sighed. "Figure we must be due some luck some time soon."

[TBC]


	3. Chapter 3

Briefing Room

"All right everyone, this is what we've got so far." Chakotay handed over immediately to Tuvok.

Tuvok activated the playback. "This surveillance tape shows the last few minutes of the Captain and Lieutenant Torres's visit to the station – the time index at the end of this extract corresponds exactly to the moment they disappeared from our sensors."

The senior staff watched as the surveillance footage showed Janeway and Torres leaving the bar and walking along the dimly lit promenade a few paces behind two male humanoids. The men were of a similar height to a human man, but were considerably slimmer, with striking bursts of bright orange hair around their face and neck, strangely reminiscent of a lion's mane.

The two hirsute aliens turned a corner, with Janeway and Torres still in tow a metre or two behind. Then the frame cut abruptly to a different viewpoint as the camera on the next promenade picked them up, only now, the orange haired men were alone. They continued on their way, seemingly unaware of the disappearance of the women just behind them. Janeway and Torres appeared to have vanished as they turned the corner.

Tuvok paused the playback and took a few seconds to search back for the time index he knew his superior officer needed to make the next point.

Chakotay had had a bad feeling in his gut about this information-gathering exercise ever since Kathryn had said she and B'Elanna would beam down to check out the rumours. Rumours of someone with a revolutionary new specification of slipstream drive to sell – someone who preferred to avoid paying the 'donation' required to trade openly out of this station. The man Neelix had spoken to had said that the illegal trader would only deal with a ship's captain.

Everything about it had felt wrong, but Chakotay hadn't even been allowed to finish his sentence this time before Kathryn had dismissed his objections. Despite everything he felt for her, there was no denying that sometimes she could be a piece of work. Some of the feelings of dread he'd been holding down managed to rise just enough to twist his gut a little and drag on his heart.

_Should've insisted Tuvok or Mike go with them – I should've gone with her myself_. _Next time I'm not going to back down. Next time…_

The viewscreen was now displaying the frozen image he needed of the alien men as they turned the corner, so he began. "This corner represents a blind spot in their surveillance system. I've already been through this with the station administrator. What we have here is all the visual help we can expect to get." He moved round to stand next to the monitor and motioned towards the two hairy figures on screen. "We've located these men - which wasn't hard - because although pretty much everyone around here seems to have a sizeable beard, most of them aren't quite so... orange. These men were just about to ship out, but after another sizeable 'donation', I persuaded the station administrator to hold them for us to question."

"Do you suspect these two individuals are responsible for the disappearance of the Captain and Lieutenant Torres?" asked Seven.

"I'm not sure yet, but I think we may find that they were just the bait or they wouldn't still be here. The footage of them in the bar a few minutes before shows the Captain watching them intently. I'm guessing they were discussing where to find the illegal trader. Something they said was enough to make the Captain and B'Elanna follow them out."

"I agree, because somehow I don't think it was their animal charisma." Tom Paris put in.

Chakotay ducked his head for a split second. "No."

Paris spoke up again, "Funny how we couldn't find anyone else who's even heard of this illegal trader and his supposedly state-of-the-art slipstream drive. Maybe we're dealing with someone we've come into contact with before – someone who knew exactly how to get our attention and set a pretty convincing trap?"

"I have already begun to review our recent contacts with species possessing cloaking technology, " stated Tuvok.

"Anyone can get their hands on a cloak if they're prepared to pay," Chakotay continued immediately, "Harry, Seven, I want you to look into all the warp-capable species we've encountered in the last year who held a grudge. It's your top priority. I want a list of possibilities in 30 minutes. Sure you'll find plenty to choose from – so prioritise, and scan again for any sign of warp signatures we've encountered before."

He turned to the Vulcan. "Tuvok, you and I will beam down and question our furry 'friends' here; I have an idea of how to get them talking."

Tuvok nodded his acknowledgment, while Seven arched a perfect eyebrow.

Chakotay didn't react to her implied query and went on immediately. "And Tuvok, while we're gone, get Ayala to run every scan again, on every frequency. I have to believe that whoever beamed them out must've left some sort of trace, somewhere."

"Understood," came the predictably impassive Vulcan response.

Chakotay looked next to Paris. "Tom, the bridge is yours. As soon as we have a heading to follow, you'll be the first to know."

"Aye, sir." Paris replied swiftly.

Chakotay made eye contact with each member of the assembled staff in turn. "I'm counting on all of you to do everything you can to get us some answers, so we can get our people back and get the hell out of here. Dismissed."

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><p>XxX<p>

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><p>"I'm telling you, they've done something to me! Implanted something inside me. That's why I'm getting these pains. The pain in my abdomen – it makes sense now."<p>

The lighting in the cell suddenly seemed far too intense, the featureless, white walls too clinically bright. B'Elanna shielded her eyes with both hands and pressed into her temples at the same time in a vain attempt to alleviate the building pressure behind her eyes.

Janeway was still seated on her bunk and looked up. "How do you know this, B'Elanna? Did that nurse you were speaking to _tell _you this before they sedated you?"

"No, I _regained consciousness_ in there - just for a moment – maybe they underestimated how much of these drugs it takes to keep me unconscious? Maybe I'm developing a tolerance for them they didn't expect, I don't know, but I could hear them talking, although I couldn't understand what they were saying and I saw them…"

Standing rigid now at the foot of her bunk, B'Elanna fought back her growing sense of dread and tried to explain. "They weren't looking at me - there was some sort of device over me, here," she motioned toward her body and pressed her hand into her stomach, "and they were looking at a screen and that's when I saw it. And I'm telling you Captain, it was… it was like… like a cluster of _cells_. They've done something – harvested my eggs or something and fertilised them with Kathless knows what and re-implanted them inside me!"

Janeway's hand was pressed into her abdomen, mirroring B'Elanna's posture. The older woman seemed to freeze like this for a moment as B'Elanna's words hung between them in the air. Then the Captain stood and took B'Elanna by the shoulders, forcing her to make eye contact. "Lieutenant, we need to focus on what we know for certain here."

Torres freed herself immediately from the Captain's loose hold and turned to take the few steps to the other end of the cell. She felt her grip on this hellish situation begin to slip. "I can't breathe."

Janeway's voice came again, this time less certain. "B'Elanna, surely there is a possibility you were hallucinating some of this. The abdominal pain we've been experiencing could be the result of any number of things - the food for example?"

"No!" She rounded on the older woman. "I'm telling you, I wasn't hallucinating." Then she resumed her former position, her back to Janeway and her hands massaging her temples. "And it would explain so much about how I've been feeling... I may never have been pregnant before, but I know the symptoms, and Klingons begin to experience them very early on in pregnancy, almost immediately after conception. And what if they didn't even need to use alien genetic material? What if they were able to find what they needed inside my body… from… from my night with Tom before we were abducted..."

She faced her companion again. "I can't deal with this… it's too much! We can work on that nurse who brings the food – I _know_ she doesn't think it's right – them holding us here like this – I can see it in her eyes every time she looks at me. Next time she comes in we need to keep her talking longer. We need to find a way out of here _now_. I mean right now. I need to see the Doctor. I need him to get whatever this is… _out _of me. _Now_. I can't stay in here."

The room suddenly seemed even smaller and B'Elanna felt her whole body heating up. She began pacing the all too familiar limits of the tiny cell, while she registered somewhere in her peripheral vision that Janeway had sat back down on her bunk.

A minute or so elapsed in this way with B'Elanna caught up in her anxiety. When she eventually looked over to Janeway, she noticed she had blanched, visibly, and had stopped watching – stopped seeing her it seemed. She was staring straight ahead, one hand still pressed into her abdomen again and the other gripping the edge of the bunk, white knuckled. The sight of her Captain like this had the effect of momentarily dissipating a little the toxic cloud of emotions that had been gradually suffocating B'Elanna for the last few minutes.

"Captain?"

Janeway blinked "What?"

"Captain, are you all right?"

"Yes," Janeway replied automatically. The lack of conviction was evident though, and she continued to stare at the wall.

Then she shook her head slightly. "I'm sorry, I just… I just can't let this happen, B'Elanna. You're right, we can't afford to wait even a few more hours, we need to find a way out of here."

Their eyes met and what B'Elanna could see there now gave her hope.

When Janeway spoke again, her voice conveyed a newfound resolve. "We can _use_ this - the fact that you may regain consciousness again in there when they're not expecting it. I know it's a terrifying prospect – that you might wake up in the middle of some… painful procedure, but we may find a way to make it work to our advantage – if we can make progress with that nurse too, convince her to risk helping us."

B'Elanna was relieved to see this change in her companion. "Good, because I don't want to be lying here like some drugged up tribble when Chakotay and Tom finally get their sorry asses here with our ride home."

"I couldn't have put it better myself, Lieutenant."

[TBC]


	4. Chapter 4

Station administrator's office

"I find it surprising these men were willing to help you, Commander. Meddling in other people's affairs is a risky business – you know what they say, too many barbers spoil the beard."

Chakotay's eyebrows rose reflexively a fraction before he began his explanation. "Once they understood the difficult position they could find themselves in, being the last two people to see our crew members, they were quite cooperative actually."

Tuvok seemed to feel it necessary to offer more of an explanation. "Suffice to say, these are two... uncomplicated individuals. Their conversation was clearly audible on the bar owner's surveillance recording. As we had suspected, they were discussing a fictitious rendezvous with an equally fictitious illegal trader, supposedly willing to sell a workable slipstream drive. Once... incentivised to cooperate, these men confessed that they had been instructed to ensure their conversation was overheard by our captain."

Chakotay caught Tuvok's eye, hoping he succeeded in communicating his gratitude to the Vulcan for keeping the account of their interrogation of the two 'uncomplicated' fools suitably vague.

"And they also told you who was responsible for beaming your crewmembers away?" The station administrator still seemed sceptical.

Chakotay took over. "Not exactly. They claim they don't know who they were. Only that they pass through this station occasionally, offering considerable rewards to anyone who will help deliver their chosen 'subjects' to specific locations on this station. Subjects that our two 'friends' finally conceded never seem to reappear on the station afterwards."

"Pah! Fanciful tales all of it! Bald face lies. I'm surprised my beard hasn't turned blue with astonishment! I have no knowledge of such things going on here. These men were clearly misleading you."

Tuvok's steady gaze fixed the doughy, blustering administrator. "In examining your transporter logs, I found three other transports in the last four months that have no discernible destination coordinates. Presumably someone in this sector possesses the ability to transport through a cloak, and the destinations of these transports were cloaked vessels. This would appear to confirm these 'fanciful tales' of people being regularly abducted from your facility."

The station administrator snorted indignantly and fluffed out his voluminous beard in irritation. "Just because someone leaves the station in a cloaked vessel doesn't prove they've been abducted! That's preposterous!"

Tuvok took a step back to allow him more space for his display of affront.

The mountainous man angled himself towards Chakotay, presenting Tuvok with his back, and continued, "You must be aware that this trading station is within a short journey of three of our sector's newest and most prestigious Proberi medical clinics. People stop off here now quite often on their way to one or other of them, and given the nature of some of the treatments available, I wouldn't be surprised if many prefer to make the final leg of their journey in a _private_ manner."

"And just what sort of 'treatments' exactly are you referring to?" Chakotay asked.

"You mean you've never had cause to use a Proberi medical facility? You surprise me Commander. Their physicians are well known across several sectors, between here and their homeworld, for successfully treating conditions other doctors cannot cure. You have never had cause to seek them out?" The administrator looked genuinely surprised. "Perhaps you have some ingenious alien ways of avoiding illness and injury?"

"'Fraid not," Chakotay's eyes twinkled in amusement for the first time since Kathryn and B'Elanna had gone missing. "But we do have our own skilled physician on board."

"Even so, I would have thought the Proberi's reputation for advanced medical technology would have reached even your depilated foreign ears as you'd passed through this sector."

Tuvok moved back into the administrator's line of sight. "It would appear that it has not, so perhaps you would enlighten us?"

Still addressing Chakotay, the administrator answered. "A few months ago they branched out and opened three of their clinics in this region. One specialises in cosmetic procedures - enhancements and the like; another in reconstructive surgery – I imagine there'll always be work in that area, given the number of on-going violent conflicts in this sector; and the third specialises in interspecies fertility treatments. Remarkable some of the offspring I've seen pass through here since it opened– many with parents who were told by their own doctors that interbreeding would be impossible. Those rumours about how they get hold of subjects for their research are just malicious gossip, spread by people who can't afford their excellent treatments. I have it on good authority that the new clinics have already attracted several well-known figures – probably just the sort of patients who would rather their presence there wasn't public knowledge. I'm sure you understand, Commander."

Chakotay considered this new information. "So you believe these cloaked transports are simply people travelling to these clinics, hoping to protect their privacy?"

"Would you want everyone knowing you were going to have a beard enhancement? That you were incapable of growing it naturally yourself?"

Chakotay was stumped.

The administrator looked pityingly at the two officers before him and went on. "I can only presume from your reaction and from your appearance that your culture prevents you from understanding the value of male facial hair. For humanoid species in this region, a thick, flowing growth is a sign of certain virility."

"I see."

He continued to look disapprovingly at Tuvok's close-cropped hair. "If you are in need of female companionship while you are here, you would do well to visit the Proberi clinic yourselves – their prices for follicle hyper-stimulation are quite reasonable I hear. Or if you are in need a quick fix, there is a boutique on this station where you can purchase a high quality synthetic, made by a local craftsman. I can make sure you get a good deal."

"That won't be necessary, thank you," Chakotay replied immediately, shifting on the spot a little, eager to get back to the topic in hand and continue the search for Kathryn and B'Elanna.

"Your choice, but I must tell you that none of the beautiful women here with their waterfalls of luscious locks would look twice at a man with such a sparse showing as you are daring to sport."

Tuvok cleared his throat and Chakotay ducked his head before looking up to address the administrator again, "We really need to beam back to our ship now to further our investigation. Good evening."

"Good evening to you Commander. May you find your women in good health."

* * *

><p>XxX<p>

* * *

><p><span>Briefing Room<span> _  
><span>_

"So that's where things stand at the moment." Chakotay paused to allow the senior team to absorb the new information.

Then Paris initiated the discussion. "So the station administrator claims the transporter logs and the cloaked ships are just clients on their way to these clinics. He expects us to believe that there's no connection between them and the rumours about people being taken against their will as research fodder?"

"Yes," Chakotay replied. "But we're pretty sure that's just the line he's sticking to in order to protect his facility – plausible deniability."

"You mean he really doesn't know whether or not these cloaked ships are abducting people, but he sure as hell isn't interested in finding out?"

"I'd say that's a pretty accurate description of his position, Tom, yes."

"If he was to draw attention to these suspicious disappearances, then he'd risk losing all the benefits I'm betting he's already gotten used to from the increased traffic these new clinics bring this way," Harry mused, his disapproval clear to everyone present.

"And these _Proberi_ – how do we find them?" asked Neelix.

"When we do find them," the Doctor cut in, "Something tells me they may well look familiar. A species with extremely advanced medical technology, that have no scruples conducting experiments on humanoid subjects possibly against their will… Hmm… I'm sure I'm not the only one experiencing déjà vu here. Perhaps we're about to come face to face with the distant cousins of the team of medical research 'scientists' the Captain disposed of last year by flying _Voyager_ into a binary pulsar?"

"The Commander and I share your suspicions, Doctor," Tuvok intoned.

"And our detailed analysis of the unusual readings we detected when the Captain and Lieutenant Torres disappeared has revealed evidence of multi phasic shifting. The aliens who boarded _Voyager_ and experimented on us used phase shifting to conceal their presence," contributed Seven.

"They came pretty near the top of our list of species that might have an axe to grind too," Harry put in.

"Well," Chakotay began, "we have the coordinates of all three of these clinics they've recently opened in this sector - they're all within a few light years of this station - so I figure it's time we started making enquires."

"What sort of enquires are we talking about exactly, Commander?" Tom asked cautiously.

"Well," Chakotay replied, "we plan to investigate all three clinics, so I'm going to need someone who's in the market for some cosmetic 'enhancements', someone with injuries so severe they warrant reconstructive surgery, and a mixed-species couple who are having problems conceiving. Any volunteers?"

There was a short pause while the senior staff digested his request.

"I'm sure Engsign O'Donnell wouldn't mind misplacing his prosthetic hand and going in search of a replacement if it helps find the Captain and Lieutenant Torres," said Neelix.

Seven fixed Neelix with her unwavering gaze, "I have a sudden desire to procreate, and I believe Neelix would be an excellent father."

"Why thank you, Seven," the little Talaxian beamed. "And may I say I think you've chosen wisely. If these people are expecting unusual couples to seek them out, I think we'd certainly qualify. As far as I know, a Talaxian has never tried mating with a human."

"Or with a former Borg drone, I presume," Seven replied coolly, and Neelix's brow furrowed as he pondered that possibility.

"And now I come to think of it," Tom put in, "I think Chell could do with a hair transplant. With all the long hair and the beards men seem to grow in this sector, it'd be completely understandable if he started to feel a bit left out…"

"Indeed," scowled the Doctor.

"Great," Chakotay smiled, "let's go then."

[TBC]


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks again to northernexposure for her beta read - I've been good with the first 4 chapters and have resisted the temptation to mess with them, but... this time, I have to admit I've added a couple of teeny-weeny sentences since she read it. Sorry... :( Bad person. So if there are mistakes, that's obviously where they'll be.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Five<span>

Janeway's sleeping form was turned to the wall, her knees pulled up towards her chest, arms hugging her stomach.

B'Elanna was convinced she knew all too well the nature of the constant dull ache from which the other woman was trying to find relief. At least the close-fitting, white bodysuits they were obliged to wear were comfortable. They were made of some sheer, yet incredibly elastic fabric, and they looked and felt like a second skin. The two women had regained consciousness after having been abducted to find that their own clothing had been replaced by these one-piece garments. The first few hours of wearing one and seeing Janeway similarly attired had given B'Elanna an unexpected insight into how exposed Seven must feel on a daily basis - of how she must feel constantly aware of the physicality of own her body and of other people's gaze. Then again, perhaps Seven had no point of comparison... As Janeway lay curled on her side, B'Elanna could see the individual vertebra of her spine where the bodysuit was pulled tight across her back.

The nurse they had managed to gain the sympathy of had told them that she was charged with the daily care of some of the patients on this wing. She regularly administered certain medication, delivered clean bodysuits and brought the women their meals.

She had tried to reassure B'Elanna and Janeway that it was very unlikely any alien genetic material would have been implanted in them. She said that everything she knew about the work of the doctor under whose 'care' they were being held meant that she would be interested in creating exclusively human embryos, if it proved to be possible, because of the unique opportunity for study they would represent. Apparently, this doctor was an authority on the reproductive cycles of humanoid species that were not native to the Delta Quadrant.

This news had lowered B'Elanna's anxiety level very slightly, but confirmed her fears about the field of medical research these 'scientists' were interested in. The nurse confirmed that this facility housed females from numerous different species. She told them she believed the others were here of their own volition, but she didn't seem surprised that the two human women were not. She seemed very reluctant – frightened even – to ask too many questions of her employers.

B'Elanna suspected that the Proberi possessed such advanced medical knowledge and technology that they would have no difficulty neutralising the effects of her contraceptive booster and stimulating her reproductive system to do pretty much anything they wanted. She also knew that human sperm could live for several days in certain environments. If it was human embryos they wished to create and study, B'Elanna began to fear that Tom might find himself the unwitting biological father of an in-vitro embryo – and then there was the fact that Janeway was experiencing the same symptoms… B'Elanna's mind began to spin in sickening confusion.

Janeway's voice suddenly brought B'Elanna's attention back to the room.

"Should never have let this happen…"

She was mumbling in her sleep and although her face was still to the wall and it was hard to catch everything she was saying, the next word B'Elanna heard was easy enough to identify.

"_Chakotay_…" Janeway almost whimpered the name. "Should never have started… I can't… can't. I'm so sorry, Chakotay."

Torres sighed as she turned away from watching her captain. She pillowed her head on one arm, and stared at the blank ceiling. _Typical Janeway, blaming herself for what had happened to them._

Sounded like she was having an imaginary conversation with the big man. Worrying what he'll say about her insisting they beam down alone to that bar. Silly really, since he'd never take her to task about any of this. If they ever did get back to _Voyager_, he'd just be glad they were OK. Funny how Janeway could spend every day working with him for almost five years and still not know that.

Several minutes passed in stillness and silence, until another possible interpretation of the words she'd just overheard occurred to B'Elanna – and another explanation for some of Janeway's reactions since they'd been imprisoned here.

_She should never have let what happen? Should never have started what? What if it wasn't her decisions about this mission that were tormenting her? Chakotay. The way she said his name – filled with so much… so much what exactly?_

B'Elanna suddenly found herself feeling a little shocked by the dawning realisation that there might actually be a great deal that she had failed to pick up on. She turned her head back to look at the sleeping woman opposite. What if Janeway and Chakotay had started something and decided to keep it to themselves?

B'Elanna had never really pressed Chakotay about what exactly had or hadn't gone down with Janeway. It'd probably been clear to anyone who'd taken the trouble to look that he'd fallen for her years ago, and to B'Elanna it'd been obvious. But what had also been obvious was that it was never likely to be something straightforward given _who_ they were, _where_ they were and _what_ they had to accomplish. She'd asked a few probing questions once or twice back then, but he'd always avoided answering – and his evasion tactics were pretty well developed – so she'd left it, presuming that either he didn't want to tell her, or there wasn't anything to tell.

Janeway and Chakotay had functioned so well together professionally for so long that B'Elanna had just presumed they'd worked through whatever problems their latent attraction might have caused them in the early years. Probably everyone on board presumed they were just good friends now. Suddenly, she wasn't so sure. It was easy to miss the signs once you'd stopped looking.

And if they were together, how did that work back on the ship? She wouldn't have thought Chakotay could have managed to keep something so significant from her, but it was also easy to underestimate him. She thought she knew him better than that. Then again, perhaps it was all very new?

What B'Elanna would have given to talk to Tom…

XxX

Janeway woke with a slight start and then shifted onto her back to try and find a more comfortable position. She didn't open her eyes, but allowed her mind to drift – there was nothing to wake up for right now in any case. It would be hours before the nurse returned and they could put their new plan into action.

Kathryn wasn't prepared to countenance the possibility of failure. B'Elanna was right; they needed to act again as soon as they could. Biding their time here, waiting days and days for Chakotay to find them, just wasn't an option.

Chakotay.

She'd tried so hard not to let herself think about him at first, but it just hadn't been possible. Which was exactly why they should never have allowed things between them to go the way they had. She knew it – she suspected he knew it too. But in fairness, neither of them had planned it. Neither of them had meant it to happen, not consciously anyway. It had just happened. At the most unlikely of times too.

The dam had almost broken the night they'd succeeded in escaping from the void, but he had held back. Maybe because he'd been worried she was still very fragile? She had been overwhelmed when she had seen just how far he was prepared to go to keep her from sacrificing herself. That night he had told her bluntly that she was asking too much of him if she ever really expected him to leave her behind.

He'd looked her in the eyes, failing, or maybe for once not even trying to conceal what he felt and said, "I thought you knew by now that I could never do that, Kathryn."

She knew they'd both felt the tension between them rising, but then he'd made his excuses and left, and nothing had happened.

And then it had.

And when it had, it hadn't really been an obvious response to any of their life-threatening crises.

He'd just been late back from his date with species 8472. And she hadn't liked it. She'd waited up for him, without admitting to herself that was what she was doing. She'd read her book, had another coffee; told herself she was simply concerned about his safety.

And then the next evening, after it was all over and she'd read his report three times, she went to his quarters to ask him about it – that was all. She just wanted to ask him about why it was so short when he'd been in that 'woman's' company for so long. It was so vague in places and there were so many omissions that her imagination had begun to fill in the gaps – presenting her with image after image of his hands on Valerie Archer's body, of him kissing her, undressing her.

They were sitting on his sofa, both cradling a drink and after several attempts to get more information out of him, Kathryn had found herself asking a question that strayed into the sort of territory they had always avoided.

"So you developed quite a rapport with this Valerie Archer then?"

He tugged on his ear and didn't manage to meet her gaze. "I guess you could say that."

"You don't get to go on many dates these days."

"No, I don't."

"And did you enjoy it?"

She'd been watching his face the entire time and he finally looked up when she asked this question – a question that surprised them both. It was quite a departure, and here she was, leading.

"Enjoy it?" he pondered, and she found herself looking at his full lips. Wondering.

Then their eyes locked and she read in his that he hadn't missed where her attention had been moments before. She suddenly felt very aware of his movements as he shifted slightly on the sofa and replied slowly, his voice low and his eyes not leaving hers.

"It was more of an experiment than a date."

"Oh?" she heard herself say, in a tone that was undeniably an invitation. "What sort of an experiment?"

And then it just happened. He moved closer and before she knew it she found herself leaning in towards him so their lips could meet.

After almost five years of carefully controlling her every tiny reaction whenever they were alone together, she was suddenly overcome by a powerful urge to allow herself the space to conduct an experiment of her own. He seemed to be overcome with the same temporary insanity and once they started, they couldn't have stopped if they'd tried. And they didn't. He pulled her closer still and offered her whatever she wanted of him, and she wanted it all.

And then the insanity turned out not to be temporary.

It happened again. And then again. She felt guilty about it the first time. And the second, but then feeling guilty about it became too exhausting and too time consuming, and she just didn't have the time. What little time she did have was already taken up with feeling guilty about those other more weighty, familiar things.

And anyway, it wasn't as if they were neglecting their duties or spending every night together, because they weren't. The needs of the crew and the ship always came first.

And immediately it had happened, it had been too late anyway: too late to pretend that they didn't already belong to one another completely. Too late to pretend she didn't already feel for him everything that she had promised herself years ago she would never allow herself to feel.

She discovered that not the saying the words didn't actually make any difference.

For the past few weeks she had surprised herself by managing to embrace and enjoy the present – a place he always seemed to inhabit more easily than she did. Before, she had always kept him at arm's length, often filling her personal time with worries about the future rather than enjoying the here and now.

But _here_ and _now_, what was happening to her and B'Elanna was taking her imagination to the sorts of places it had never strayed before, even when she was lying in his strong and loving arms.

What if B'Elanna's fears were confirmed? What if these alien scientists were trying to create human embryos to study? Perhaps they intended to harvest human stem cells or study human amniotic fluid to see what use these new biological structures could be put to by their doctors? What if they were indeed able to counter the effects of her booster? And given how she and Chakotay had spent the half hour between 06.00 and 06.30 on the morning of the day she was abducted, an internal examination would have allowed them to get everything they needed for in-vitro fertilization.

And even if these medical researchers were only interested in creating exclusively human embryos, was it really likely they would stop at the creation of just one single embryo? What if they intended to re-implant several? What if they decided to try a little mix and match?

And if they did, it wouldn't even be the first time she and Tom Paris had produced offspring… Was she _really_ fated to keep having children with her reclamation project? Was the multiverse trying to tell her something? Perhaps there was an alternative reality somewhere where she had and Tom were… Even as she struggled to force those outrageous thoughts back down, she couldn't stop others from coming.

What if she really was pregnant _now_, pregnant with Chakotay's child? It was simply impossible to prevent her imagination from throwing up images of what a child of theirs might look like – there it was again – a tiny face, sleeping peacefully, eyes shut, thick dark hair, sun-kissed skin... How could she not wonder what it would feel like to hold him or her in her arms?

Knowing it was unwise to entertain these thoughts didn't mean she could just decide not to think them.

She was certain something had been done to her because she felt different, but she had no way of knowing whether or not this feeling was the result of hormones coursing through her body as it dealt with the early days of pregnancy. She was struggling to process all the unexpectedly forceful, chaotic and conflicting thoughts and emotions that this situation inspired in her.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she heard a voice that repeated _You always knew that you shouldn't have given in to it – that it would be too much – that it would inevitably cause you pain._

Trying to stop things between them now, Kathryn suspected, would be like trying to sever one of her own limbs – with a handheld saw and no anesthetic. But just as her body was trapped in this cell, her mind seemed to be equally trapped – in a cavern where her repetitive thoughts echoed endlessly off the walls. If they ever got out of here and back to the ship, back to him, she would need to think long and hard about what to do.

Any tentative plans she'd once had about having a child had been left behind in the Alpha Quadrant. She had resigned herself to remaining childless for the foreseeable future, and quite possibly forever.

Since she and Chakotay had become intimate, neither of them had initiated conversation about exactly what it was that they were doing. Unspoken between them was the understanding that were they to open that discussion, it might end somewhere uncomfortable. Far less comfortable than each other's arms – so they hadn't talked about anything to do with the future. In any case, Kathryn didn't _need_ to ask him to know that he wouldn't actively choose to try to raise a child while leading _Voyager_ across this impossible quadrant any more than she would. It was unthinkable. But now, suddenly, the unthinkable had moved into the realm of the possible, and she was terrified.

Janeway sighed and brought one hand up to shield her eyes as she opened them to the too-bright light of the cell. Taking a deep breath, she forced her mind back to concentrate on their new plan to reclaim their freedom.

XxX

B'Elanna heard her cellmate shift and realised Janeway was awake now. A few minutes later they sat facing one another.

"I'd say we have an hour or so before the nurse comes in. Does that sound about right to you?" Janeway asked.

"Yes. Maybe a little less."

"Are you ready?"

"As ready as I can be, yes. You?" B'Elanna enquired.

"The same. I'm glad I managed to get some sleep first at least," replied Janeway.

B'Elanna watched her for a moment, weighing up whether or not it was worth saying anything, before she began. "You were talking a little, just now… in your sleep."

"Oh? Well, I hope I didn't disturb you."

"No. Mainly you just said his name a few times."

Janeway looked up. "Whose name?"

B'Elanna held her gaze for a moment while Janeway searched her face, more than a little wary.

"Chakotay."

Janeway stood, almost losing her balance momentarily and immediately made her way to the tiny shower cubicle, the colour gradually rising up her neck and face. B'Elanna remained where she was, lost in thought for a few minutes.

Then the older woman reappeared, definitely more composed, and instantly took charge.

"We should go through it one more time before she comes in."

[TBC]


	6. Chapter 6

Briefing Room

Immediately the senior staff had been assembled, Chakotay stood and addressed them. The briefing room buzzed with tension, heightening the effects of the adrenaline that had been keeping _Voyager_'s first officer alert and charged for days now.

"In the last few hours, I've had some enlightening conversations with the managers of all three of these clinics." He took a steadying breath.

"We've had visual communication with the manager of the nearest clinic, and I can confirm that we are dealing with the same race of aliens who experimented on us on board _Voyager _last year. Apparently in this region they tend to be referred to as the Proberi – but that word actually means 'doctor' in their language. They are members of a race called the Srivani. They weren't in a mood to introduce themselves last time anyway – guess they were a little busy."

He moved around to stand next to the control panel of the viewscreen.

"Tuvok recognised his species immediately, and the manager was quick to tell us that he's heard of _Voyager_ – every Srivani scientist has heard of us apparently. The destruction of their ships last year was big news. Apparently the research team who were experimenting on us were led by a Dr Alzen. I'm guessing she was the one Captain Janeway spoke with."

Chakotay activated the screen and a brownish-grey planet appeared. "This is the Srivani homeworld – it's a few hundred light years from where we got caught up in the conflict between the Vori and the Kradin."

Next, the viewscreen showed a visual of a Srivani male in a brown tunic, the distinctive protrusions around his ears clearly visible.

"And this is the clinic manager we managed to contact, I've put this picture up in case any you didn't get a good look at them last time – I know I didn't, since my eyesight had pretty much failed by the time Seven exposed them." Chakotay caught Neelix's eye and the two of them shared a smile in recognition of the similar fate they had suffered at the hands of this species.

_Voyager_'s first officer continued, "Apparently, our successful resistance to their research and the destruction of their ships caused quite a stir in their society. A group of Srivani had already been campaigning for some time in favour of outlawing research where the subjects become aware of what's happening to them, and it seems this group used what happened to these ships and on board _Voyager_ to argue their case."

"And they won?" Tom asked, more than a little surprised.

"It would appear so, Mr Paris," Tuvok replied. "According to the manager of nearest the clinic, the Srivani passed new legislation stating that if a subject becomes aware that they are being experimented on, the experiment must be terminated immediately, and the subject given any medical care they may require."

Chakotay nodded and added, "They still carry out covert research experiments on unsuspecting subjects whenever and wherever they choose, but for them, explicitly outlawing what they call 'subject aware' research represents a substantial change."

"And did the manager know what the Srivani medical community thinks of this change in the law?" asked the Doctor more than a little sceptically.

"He apologised for what we suffered at the hands of what he called 'the last of their kind' of his planet's medical research scientists. He then assured us that we would no longer find any Srivani involved in such abhorrent practices," came the monotone Vulcan response.

Chakotay took over again, "I suggested that perhaps the new law may only have succeeded in driving the old research methods underground – which would be where our hairy orange friends come in, supplying new 'subjects' who are taken to covert research laboratories. But he wasn't open to considering this possibility. Not unless we can provide 'substantial evidence'."

"So these clinic managers claim to know nothing about any 'subject aware' research still going on in this sector?" Neelix asked.

"Correct," confirmed Tuvok. "And all three claim they do not have any patients fitting the description of the Captain or Lieutenant Torres."

"They're a long way from home, out here though, aren't they?" Paris mused. "If you were of a mind to ignore these new laws, any of these three clinics would be an ideal location – they've sited them at the outmost edge of the systems we've been told the Srivani are spread across. "

"Yes, they are," replied Chakotay. "And the manager of one of the other clinics eventually admitted to me that there were still some Srivani sympathetic to the old ways and unless a team of inspectors came to call, no one would be any the wiser if there were still a few of the old school scientists carrying on as before."

"Indeed. As I discovered when I listened to the Crell Moset hologram's attempts at self-justification, it's possible to speed up the rate of progress in medical research quite drastically, once you dispense with 'inconvenient' ethical considerations," the Doctor replied with undisguised contempt.

"Who's to say they don't have a few 'subject aware' patients in a secluded wing somewhere in each of these facilities, staffed by scientists who haven't been convinced by the arguments for change?" suggested Kim.

"That's my bet too, Harry," Chakotay agreed, ignoring the twist in his gut. "We all know that change can be difficult, and sometimes, _real_ change is a long time coming."

Then he addressed the meeting with renewed purpose. "Our plans have to adapt now that we know who we're dealing with. We've already told them who we're looking for, and for all we know their medical community may have access to data about us transmitted from _Voyager _last year, so it's no longer a viable option to send anyone down claiming to be in the market for their medical treatments."

"Crewman O'Donnell will be disappointed we no longer need his services, Commander," the Doctor interjected. "He was very much looking forward to singlehandedly saving the Captain and Lieutenant Torres. His joke I assure you, not mine," he added gamely.

Chakotay ignored the collective groan and went on, "Don't worry, Doctor, I'll make sure he's still gets to play a part. We'll arrive at the nearest clinic in less than an hour and Tuvok and Neelix will beam down immediately to further the official enquiries we've begun over the comm. At the same time, we'll be putting people on the ground in each of the settlements and colonies the clinics are situated in, to find out anything else we can, and we'll obviously be using every scan Harry and Seven can come up with to try and locate the Captain and B'Elanna."

"We have adjusted sensors to a phase variance of point one five, as this is how Lieutenant Torres and I detected these aliens during our last encounter," stated Seven. "It is also possible we may detect vessels delivering new 'subjects' for experimentation."

_Voyager_'s first officer nodded his acknowledgement at the former Borg.

"If we do detect any ships travelling out of phase with normal space, tracking them might well lead us to where B'Elanna and the Captain are being held, in case they aren't at the site of any of these clinics," Tom added.

"Agreed," Chakotay replied. Then his eyes swept once around the table. "Wherever they are, the Captain and B'Elanna will be doing everything they can to escape, but if that isn't possible, they'll be counting on us to find them and get them out. And we're not going to disappoint. Dismissed."

As the room cleared Chakotay offered a silent prayer to any spirits that might be listening.

_Hang on Kathryn, B'Elanna._

* * *

><p>XxX<p>

* * *

><p><span>Ready Room<span>

He stood in front of the replicator and took a steadying breath as his drink materialised – an old blend of cinnamon tea.

His eyes closed for a moment. Try as he might, whenever he wasn't focussed on a specific task to further their search, he couldn't stop his mind from coming back to the same question. Why hadn't he done more to stop Kathryn and B'Elanna leaving the ship with no security detail? It was so damn basic. He rubbed one hand across his face and took a deep steadying breath, letting it out slowly, eyes still closed.

He knew he was second guessing himself a little here – questioning his own motivation. Had he given in because it was the first time he had really disagreed with Kathryn since things between them had taken the unexpected turn they had a few weeks back? Was he afraid any professional disagreement would cause her to withdraw from him on a personal level? Were his feelings for her affecting his command decisions? He'd promised himself he'd guard against that possibility. Had he been naïve? Was it really ever going to be possible to keep things completely separate?

Until now it had been easy. Surprisingly easy.

He hadn't spent time analysing what they were doing, considering all the implications, he'd just been enjoying everything they finally were together.

The morning after she had ended up in his bed – her body moulded to his, exactly where she belonged – he'd watched her face as she awoke. Within minutes, her eyes had clouded. Some of the implications of what they had just done had no doubt found their way in to trouble her. She had left him with one wistfully tender, lingering kiss and slipped out of bed and out of his quarters far too quickly.

For a while after that, predictably, she had kept her distance. He'd let her; he hadn't pushed. It hadn't actually been that hard – he was a patient man, so he'd waited.

Then, a few days later in a calm sector of space, she'd appeared in his quarters, and with one look, her eyes had told him instantly that she had come in without the intention of going back out much before morning. As was so often the case between them, words weren't necessary.

It had made him chuckle though. He found himself speculating that most of the significant and difficult conversations they should probably have been having with each other had already taken place and worked themselves out in her head. She hadn't actually required him to be there.

To lose her was simply unthinkable. He refused to believe the spirits would be so cruel. He had already been required to accept more than enough loss in his lifetime. For almost three days now he had resolutely refused to contemplate the possibility of failure.

He collected his thoughts – along with the tea – and sat down at the desk.

XxX

A few minutes later the chime sounded and Chakotay called to the visitor to enter without looking up from the PADD he was working on. He'd been expecting him.

"Busy?"

"What's on your mind, Tom?" Paris looked pretty much how Chakotay felt.

"I was wondering whether I'm going to be included in any of the away teams – we'll be there soon and I know Neelix and some of the others already have their orders, so…"

"Yes, you're included – not in any of the teams we're putting into the surrounding areas – you'll be with me and Ayala. We'll be the final extraction team, once we find out where they're being held."

Paris visibly relaxed a little. "Thanks."

Chakotay laid the PADD on the desk and sat back in Kathryn's chair. "How are you holding up?"

"I've been better," replied Paris.

"I know this is hard for you, but I need you to stay focussed right now. I need to know I can count on you one hundred per cent."

"You can, sir."

"You know as well as I do the Captain and B'Elanna will already be doing everything they can to contact us – whoever has them may well make the mistake of underestimating them – it wouldn't be the first time."

"Yeah, I've been telling myself that sort of stuff too." Tom studied the carpet for a moment before looking up again. "But the truth is, it's been almost three days now, and we don't even know where they are or if they're still alive."

Chakotay held Paris's piercing blue gaze and answered with as much conviction as he could muster. "Oh they're alive all right. Someone took a lot of trouble to set that trap for them – you don't do that if you're just going to kill someone. So they're alive, and we'll find them, Tom. And when we do, I'm volunteering you to explain what took us so long."

Tom smiled weakly. "Thanks, Chakotay, you're a true friend."

[TBC]


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story so far. I really appreciate the encouragement.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Seven<span>

_Voyager_'s Bridge

"Commander, I'm receiving a transmission from Lieutenant Carey and Ensign O'Donnell. They're still in the commercial district of the colony on Lav'oti VI where the third clinic is situated," reported Harry.

"Let's hear it," said Chakotay.

"Channel open."

"Report Lieutenant."

"_I think we're getting somewhere here, Commander." _Joe Carey's voice came through loud and clear._ "We've been talking to the owner of a bar near the clinic. He said he didn't know anything about the Captain and B'Elanna, but he did recognise the name of our ship. He says an off-duty nurse asked him just a couple of hours ago if he knew whether a ship called _Voyager_ was in orbit_."

Chakotay stood immediately.

As Carey had been speaking, Paris had turned around at the helm, his eyes alive with real hope for the first time since B'Elanna and Kathryn had disappeared. Chakotay held Tom's gaze and offered him a small smile as he answered.

"That's sounds like a promising lead and it's the closest thing we've had to good news in nearly three days, Joe. Good work. Did he say anything else?"

"_Only that this nurse said she needed to contact someone on board. He said he presumed she was expecting a new patient to arrive on a ship of that name. He remembers her because she seemed very disappointed when he couldn't help and then she left suddenly without waiting for her change_."

"Tom, take us in orbit of the Lav'oti VI colony now, maximum warp."

* * *

><p>XxX<p>

* * *

><p><span>Srivani fertility, conception and birthing clinic, Lav'oti VI colony<span>

B'Elanna closed the door over silently behind them. So far so good. They had stolen the short distance down the corridor to this room without coming across anyone at all.

When the sympathetic nurse had appeared in their cell, it had been clear that she felt distressed by the failure of her initial attempt to help them. She told them she'd tried making enquiries outside the clinic, but nothing had come of it. B'Elanna had listened as Janeway had skilfully and sensitively encouraged the nurse's feelings of distress to translate into a willingness to assist them further now.

Everyone knew Janeway was good at that sort of thing, but to see her in action here – when they had so few options and their desperation could so easily have made her impatient – had left B'Elanna seriously impressed. The older woman's handling of the nurse proved to be truly inspired. After only a few minutes, she had convinced her to risk allowing them access to this tiny monitoring room. If she'd failed to persuade her then they would have been obliged to embark on their much more ambitious – some might say crazy – backup plan. A plan that relied on B'Elanna waking up again mid-procedure and being in a fit state to surprise the team of aliens working on them.

Now they were inside, crushed up against each other as they negotiated the tiny space designed to house only one employee, they knew they would only have a few minutes to exploit this opportunity. B'Elanna set to work immediately. Her task was to determine what sort of power this facility ran on, and find out how to disrupt it.

The nurse showed Janeway what little she knew of how to operate the monitors. Janeway was a quick study and within minutes, she had worked out how to access certain cameras all over the facility.

B'Elanna stopped what she was doing for a moment to watch as images appeared on screen of other women wearing the same close fitting, white bodysuits she and Janeway had on. From the marked difference in the standard of the accommodation and in the demeanour of its inhabitants it was clear that these were voluntary patients. The rooms were far larger, with external windows and comfortable furnishings including a sofa, a table and chairs and some small storage units. The door to one of the rooms was open and a corridor clearly visible. Everything about the decoration was radically different too. There were no sterile, featureless, white walls here. These rooms were clearly designed to be warm and welcoming.

Ever conscious of the seconds ticking away, B'Elanna tore her gaze away from the images. Her eyes fell on the badge the nurse wore with the clinic's logo on it. The nurse allowed her to take it. Armed with this makeshift tool, within minutes B'Elanna had succeeded in forcing off a small section of the panel in front of her.

"Captain," her voice conveyed her surprise, despite the fact it was barely more than a whisper, "I think part of their power grid is similar to our bio-neural circuitry."

"Does that mean you can work out how to shut it down?" Janeway asked immediately.

"I'm not sure yet, but it does mean I'm in with a fighting chance." B'Elanna ignored the pounding noise of her own fast-beating heart and evaluated the picture presented to her by the exposed circuitry. She took a deep breath and made a decision about which section to focus on first.

Seconds later, something brightly coloured flashed into her peripheral vision just as Janeway said, "Look, B'Elanna!"

She looked up again at the monitor. Never before had she been so glad to see one of Neelix's garish jackets. Janeway had accessed the cameras monitoring the reception area and what looked like it might well be the manager's office. As well as Neelix, Tuvok was also clearly visible, facing the camera. She could also see one of the aliens – presumably whoever was in charge here – seated behind an imposing desk.

"They've found us!" B'Elanna hissed at Janeway, as she felt her heart rate speed up further.

Janeway clasped B'Elanna's arm with considerable force. "We need to find a way to disrupt their power supply _now_, while Tuvok and Neelix are still here. This may be our only chance."

B'Elanna's focus had already shifted back to the console, "I'm already on it, Captain. But this system is decades ahead of anything I've ever seen. At best I can disrupt it for a short time. But they're bound to have independent back-up systems and they'll trace the problem to this room immediately."

"Do it."

"OK, here goes."

* * *

><p>XxX<p>

* * *

><p><em><span>Voyager<span>_'s Bridge

"I've found them, Commander."

Having fought the urge to vault over the railings and kiss Harry, Chakotay settled for a brisk trot up the steps and firm hand on the young ensign's shoulder.

"Good work, Harry."

"Their power supply seems to have been partially compromised somehow, that's how I was able to locate them. There's some sort of sophisticated shielding around the whole clinic that none of our scans could penetrate, but it just went down."

"Can you beam them out?"

"No, there's still a low level dampening field active down there, probably designed to stop anyone doing just that. We'd risk scattering their patterns."

As Chakotay watched those two precious bio signatures flickering faintly but consistently on the screen of the operations console, relief flooded in. But he knew it was far from over yet.

* * *

><p>XxX<p>

* * *

><p><span>Srivani fertility, conception and birthing clinic, Lav'oti VI colony<span>

"In here, quickly."

The nurse led the way into a large rectangular room.

"Through here. There's an external door."

Janeway and B'Elanna didn't hesitate to follow her. Within seconds all three women had passed through into the small room that led off the first. Most of the end wall of this little antechamber was taken up by a set of double doors. They were locked.

The nurse addressed both women, "This is where I used to work. This is where patients wait if they're using the clinic's private shuttle service. And it's where I first realised something here wasn't right. There was this woman, a patient whose medication I remembered preparing – her name was Lisara – and she was brought into this room when I was on duty, and she was _dead_. She had no identification; her body was just left here for several minutes. I asked about her and the doctor who brought her in just ignored me and left. And then some men arrived and took her body away in one of the clinic's own shuttles. Later, when I tried to look her up on the system, she simply didn't exist anymore."

The nurse was already backing out of the antechamber back into the main room, "Find a way to open those doors and leave. I'm so frightened for you. I can't stay here… that's as much as I can… I'm sorry…" and she was gone.

XxX

"They're in here." Tom's hushed voice and his hand holding the tricorder preceded him into the little back room by a fraction of a second. Chakotay and Ayala followed immediately behind.

"Tom!" B'Elanna exclaimed, as her eyes widened at the wonderful sight of the three tall men, dressed head to toe in black. Their broad frames filled the antechamber completely as they surrounded the two women. As she stood, sandwiched between Tom and Chakotay, B'Elanna felt as if a piece of home had arrived.

Then she watched as Janeway locked eyes with her first officer and spoke to him through her crooked smile.

"So, this is what happens when I leave you in charge for a few days, Commander? You send Starfleet in front of house while the Maquis sneak in through the back door?"

Chakotay's eyes twinkled, his hand found its way to the small of Janeway's back and he dipped his head close to her ear, "It's good to see you too, Captain." Then he and Ayala quickly handed the two women phasers and combadges.

Tom pulled B'Elanna closer and planted a hasty, hungry kiss on her lips. She closed her eyes for that split second and kissed him back, hard, still trying to process the fact he was here, in the flesh. He leant back a fraction as his eyes swept appreciatively over her unusual attire, "Nice catsuit."

B'Elanna punched his arm in exasperation, but found she was still smiling.

Then Tom turned to address Janeway, "Actually Captain, Tuvok told us that according to front of house, you and B'Elanna aren't here – so neither are we."

"I see," replied _Voyager_'s captain, "Well I can't say I'm surprised to hear that they weren't exactly advertising our little stay. We'll tell you about it once we're back on the ship. Right now, we just need to get out of here. I can tell you already, that this door here is too secure to break through, so I'm hoping you're going to say we can get out the same way you got in."

"We're counting on it," replied Chakotay. "The size of the bribe Lieutenant Carey gave that catering worker, he probably would have agreed to leave the door unlocked for the rest of the week."

Janeway's eyes still hadn't left Chakotay's face.

Then B'Elanna noticed a look pass between Ayala and Chakotay. She and Tom were already leading the way out into the larger room and Ayala followed and then stopped in the doorway, blocking it with his tall frame as he stood facing Tom and B'Elanna, his back to the command team.

A few more seconds passed, during which Tom was focussed on his tricorder readings as he scanned the vicinity to pinpoint exactly where the aliens were now in the building. B'Elanna couldn't help but glance back over her shoulder again. Mike Ayala's eyes flickered away from hers immediately she looked his way.

She realised then that she wasn't actually surprised he might already be aware of certain things she had only just begun to suspect. For as long as she'd known them, Ayala and Chakotay had always had each other's back.

XxX

Minutes later the five of them were making their way silently along the corridor, B'Elanna and Tom bringing up the rear. Tom whispered to her that they had almost reached the catering delivery entrance that the three men had used to enter.

Then, all of a sudden, the low-level emergency lighting strips that were embedded in the corridor walls flickered once and went off, just as the main overhead lights came back on at full strength.

"They're right behind us," Tom warned.

"Indeed," came the confident response – a voice B'Elanna didn't recognise.

She turned as one with her crewmates to see a small group of the alien researchers round the corner at the end of the corridor, three of them aiming sleek and compact hand-held weapons at the Starfleet officers. B'Elanna spotted the catering entrance they had been aiming for – it was only a few metres ahead of them now. The group of tall, slender aliens overtook them and came to stand directly in front of it.

"We have restored power to all our systems," the same voice remarked. B'Elanna identified its owner. She stood slightly in front of the others and she carried herself with an air of authority. She looked at Janeway with what seemed like mild amusement, as she toted her phaser at her. "Primitive weapons such as yours will not function here."

Janeway squared her shoulders and faced up to her. "We're leaving now."

"I'm afraid I cannot allow that. The experiment with which you have been assisting us is not yet complete."

"Oh, I think you'll find that it is," _Voyager_'s captain replied, her tone steel.

"If you think we're going back into that cell, then your little experiment hasn't taught you anything at all about us yet," B'Elanna spat.

The tall, almost androgynous looking alien's attention moved from Janeway to B'Elanna, who was standing close to Tom at the rear of the group of humans. "Perhaps there _is_ indeed more to learn. As I said, our experiment is not yet complete."

"What have you been doing to us? What is this 'experiment' of yours exactly?" Janeway demanded.

"Allowing subjects access to that information has proved to be counterproductive." She paused for a moment before addressing her again. "You will return to your cubicle or we will be obliged to detain these three males as well." Her grey eyes swept over Chakotay and Ayala as if she were inspecting livestock. Then she made a show of taking a step forward to look behind them to give Tom the once over as well. "Our colleagues in the clinic in the Lav'oti IV system are always grateful for healthy male research subjects from unusual species. I believe these three would prove suitable."

Stepping out simultaneously from behind Janeway, Chakotay and Ayala repositioned themselves in front of her in one smooth movement, shielding her with their bodies. This had the effect of closing the gap between the two factions, and their uncompromising stance presented a challenge to the alien doctor to try and make good her threat of detaining them as well.

Chakotay addressed her evenly. "I suspect your own government would have something to say about that. Before we beamed down, I alerted them to the situation here. The colony authorities here on Lav'oti VI also have some questions about exactly what you've been doing in their space. You might want to think twice before you take any further action against us or our ship."

The alien seemed unimpressed. "You may be interested to hear that the Presider of this colony is a personal friend of mine; his wife is one of my clients. But rest assured your females will be returned to you once the experiment has been concluded."

Janeway tilted her chin up a little further. "I don't think you understand the situation here. We have no intention of cooperating with you in any way. We are leaving. _Now_. So stand aside."

"It is you who are failing to grasp the reality of what you have done." The condescension with which the alien addressed Janeway was unmistakable. It made B'Elanna's blood boil. "Your males are risking their freedom by coming here. I will still allow them to leave, but only if they do so immediately."

B'Elanna watched as Chakotay turned back to catch Tom's eye and asked,

"Tom, how long do we have?"

"Three minutes remaining, Commander."

Chakotay took another step forward, so he was face to face with the alien 'scientist'. "Before you issue any more ultimatums, there's something else you should know. I believe you've already had the pleasure of meeting Commander Tuvok?"

"He has already departed this colony and re-joined your ship."

"Yes, I know. I gave him explicit instructions that if he didn't hear from us in 15 minutes – 15 minutes, of which, as we've just heard from Mr Paris, there are now a little less than three remaining – he is authorised to fire the tri-cobalt device we have trained on this facility. A tri-cobalt device with a yield of two thousand teracochranes. I realise our weapons are less advanced than yours, but if you consult your historical database, you'll find that such devices are quite capable of destroying this facility."

"Empty threats. He's bluffing," the alien doctor remarked dismissively to the female on her right. Then she turned to address one of the operatives holding a weapon. "Take these subjects back to their cubicle."

"Dr Rurzan, if I may?" interjected the alien to whom she had directed her comment a moment ago. "I believe you should take his threat seriously."

"What makes you say that, Professor?" asked the female they now knew to be Dr Rurzan.

"Perhaps she knows a little about what happened the first time your people tried to conduct their 'experiments' on us?" Chakotay offered calmly.

"The human is correct, Dr Rurzan," replied the professor. "I have studied in detail the wealth of data about this species transmitted by my esteemed mentor the late Dr Alzen before her ship was destroyed. I believe that it is likely they would have no compunction about ending their own lives along with all of ours if we do not meet their demands."

Doubt crept into Rurzan's eyes for the first time.

Chakotay fixed Rurzan again, his gaze unwavering. "You should listen to your colleague. And check your records of our mission logs – I'm betting your people downloaded everything they could from _Voyager_ last time we met – you'll find this wouldn't be the first time we've detonated a tricobalt device. Or if you don't have that information to hand, then scan the data banks on our ship, I'm sure you're more than capable."

"Two minutes, Commander," Paris added.

Janeway took a step forward to stand level with Chakotay, immediately in front of Dr Rurzan. "We'd rather die in the destruction of this facility than stay here and be experimented on. We're quite prepared to let Commander Tuvok lead the crew home without us. Check our mission logs again, you'll find we've done that before too."

Chakotay shot her an appreciative sideways look, and she shrugged in response.

The alien professor entered something into her handheld device. Seconds passed in tense silence.

B'Elanna's felt Tom's hand curl around hers.

Finally, the professor spoke again. "Information retrieval reports that the first action of these humans on arrival in this quadrant was to use a tricobalt device to destroy a transportation array. They also confirm their other claims. And the irresponsible and foolhardy behaviour of their captain in flying their ship into a binary pulsar is already well documented."

Dr Rurzan listened, stony faced.

Then the second 'scientist' looked up from her device and continued, "It is my opinion that it would be prudent not to engage further with these primitive and violent subjects and risk the same fate suffered by Dr Alzen and her team as a result of their irrational and reckless behaviour."

B'Elanna inhaled deeply and fixed Dr Rurzan with her most ferocious Klingon death-stare.

"One minute remaining," reported Tom.

"Stand aside _now_ and allow us to leave through that door so that we contact our ship," demanded Janeway, "or you'll be here to experience first hand the next example of our 'irrational and reckless behaviour'."

A look passed between the two alien scientists and their lab coats flared up momentarily behind them as they turned on their heels and retreated down the corridor.

Seconds later, B'Elanna stood with the others at the beam-out site just outside the boundaries of the clinic. She'd rarely been so glad to leave anywhere in her life.

As she felt the familiar tingle of dematerialisation, her mind already began to grapple with what would come next. Transporter room two came into focus around her and she suddenly found herself unable to meet anyone's gaze.

Sickbay. She needed to see the Doctor. Immediately.

[TBC]


	8. Chapter 8

Sickbay

The Doctor's familiar face came into focus. B'Elanna and Janeway had been beamed straight to sickbay from the transporter room.

"Welcome back, Lieutenant. The sedative is wearing off, you will be back to normal in a moment or two."

B'Elanna turned onto her side. _I doubt that very much,_ she thought.

The now familiar sight of Janeway, lying unconscious, greeted B'Elanna as she looked across to the bed on the far side of the room.

"I've completed the thorough physical I described, including the deep level tissue scan," the Doctor continued, "and I've been able to determine the nature and extent of the 'experiments' these so-called doctors were conducting on you."

B'Elanna found she was unwilling to look at him, so she focussed on pulling herself up to a sitting position and adjusting the wonderfully roomy Starfleet medical gown. Conscious of the Doctor's eyes watching her carefully, her level of discomfort rose further – she longed to finally get away from all things medical and back to her quarters. Desperately wanting – needing – to know what he had been able to discover, she was also quietly terrified of what might be coming.

He began, "Before I go into detail, I need to inform you that there has been a development."

"What do you mean?" B'Elanna met his gaze for the first time and tried to ignore the heat rising through her body. What would he term 'a development'?

"When I made my preliminary report to Commander Chakotay I told him that although no irreversible damage had been done to you or the Captain, I had found evidence that your ovaries had been hyper-stimulated and eggs removed. He immediately informed me that he would be returning to the surface. He and Lieutenant Ayala beamed back down to the colony and visited the clinic again, this time accompanied by the Lav'oti VI authorities who were already beginning their investigation of the whole facility. Once they were back inside the Srivani's shields, they scanned for human DNA. They detected a tiny amount, stored inside some small stasis units. The Commander had these units beamed directly here, to me in sickbay."

B'Elanna fought back nausea. For a moment she couldn't speak, then she demanded, "Just tell me what they've done, Doctor, now!"

"It appears that over the last three days they succeeded in somehow stimulating your ovaries to produce dozens of eggs, which they then extracted."

"They implanted something inside me, didn't they? – I saw it on a monitor during a procedure!" Her eyes pleaded with the Doctor to tell her different.

"I am not surprised you believed this. But I can assure, it's not the case. Perhaps the procedure you witnessed was some part of the egg extraction process? You are not pregnant, B'Elanna. Nothing has been implanted in you." The Doctor's hushed voice conveyed a sensitivity to the ordeal the young woman had undergone.

He moved slightly closer and continued, "The… feelings you describe were probably a result of the egg extraction procedure and the hyper-stimulation of the cells in your womb lining. It looks to me as if they were _preparing_ your womb to receive and sustain _multiple_ embryos. So I believe that your instinct was correct. I believe that it would only have been a matter of days before they had begun re-implantation. I'd say _Voyager_ arrived just in time."

"Re-implantation with what? What are you trying to tell me, Doctor?"

"I believe they intended to attempt to fertilise some of the eggs that they had extracted from you."

"How can you know that?"

"One of the units I received contained eggs they had extracted from your ovaries, as well as some samples of your blood."

"And the others?"

"Another unit contained what I believe they were able to retrieve from your most recent intimate relations with Mr Paris."

B'Elanna took a steadying breath. "Just how many of these stasis units were there exactly?"

"These were the only two containing anything pertaining to you, Lieutenant. I am obviously not at liberty to discuss with you anything other than your own situation here."

"But the Captain – is she all right? What have they done to her?"

"I'm sure the Captain would want me to share with you the fact that nothing – human or otherwise – has been implanted in her either. I realise this must have been a terrifying prospect for both of you – something you feared for yourselves and for each other."

B'Elanna's mind was still processing the information he'd just given her about these stasis units and what the implications could be. "And have you told Tom anything?"

"All the genetic material in these two units had been acquired from your body, No embryos had been created yet. Your timely escape and rescue made sure of that. What you decide to share with Tom about any of this remains your choice."

That was something she would need to think about away from his perceptive holographic gaze.

"I realise this is extremely difficult for you, Lieutenant. So let me assure you that this information remains between us. Commander Chakotay has not required me to divulge anything about what was contained in these units, other than to confirm that they do not pose a threat to ship's security. I am confident that the Captain will uphold his decision when she regains consciousness and is made aware of the situation. Everything I found is obviously subject to doctor-patient confidentiality."

She understood his solicitous attitude, but now that she finally knew what had and hadn't been done to her by the Srivani she wasn't worried about confidentiality. Her relationship with Tom wasn't a secret. Had these units contained embryos of any genetic make-up – human or alien – she knew her feelings would have been radically different.

Even though she felt it was impossible to make sense of all this immediately, it already seemed to B'Elanna that the Doctor might be underestimating the ethical implications here. Surely she could have no right over the unit containing Tom's genetic material, regardless of where it had been obtained?

The Doctor was still talking, so she forced her attention back to his words.

"Think of it like this – you now have a considerable supply of healthy eggs, stored safely in stasis. The unit's power supply is perfectly compatible with _Voyager_'s. You may choose to keep these eggs in stasis, just in case you should you ever need them in the future. Or I can deactivate the unit whenever you wish."

She knew the Doctor was doing everything he could to be sensitive to her feelings, but she really wasn't sure she'd ever be able to think about these extracted eggs in the way he was suggesting.

B'Elanna stood and tested her legs. She felt like she'd been sitting or lying down for weeks even though it had only been three days – what she wouldn't give right now for a game of hoverball or a Klingon martial arts workout.

"Look, Doctor," she went on, "thank you – thank you for telling me everything. I'll think about what you've said, but right now, I need to go. I just need to get out of here."

"Of course, I understand, Lieutenant. I'm sure you're more than ready to get back to familiar surroundings. And I know Mr Paris is eager to see you. He and Commander Chakotay seemed to be taking it in turns to interrupt my work every five minutes, wanting to know when you would be up and about! After the first few, I stopped answering their comm calls, or I never would have been able to finish my examinations. I will obviously inform them now that you're returning to your quarters. I recommend you take a further twenty four hours before you return to duty, however."

As she crossed sickbay towards the door that she could just walk out of, free, she was suddenly overcome by a tidal wave of relief, now she knew for certain that nothing – human, alien or any nightmare combination – had been implanted inside her. She froze for a moment, just before the doors' sensor pads would have activated them. The Doctor had followed her, appearing to have yet more he wanted to say.

"If there is anything you want to talk about, please don't hesitate to come back, B'Elanna. But before you go, I do need to alert you to one of the consequences of the aliens' interference with your body's normal cycles."

She tensed. Perhaps it wasn't completely over.

"I assure you, it's nothing to worry about," he added hurriedly, clearly sensing her alarm, "and I understand that you want to leave sickbay now, so I can send the information to the terminal in your quarters. I must stress, however, that it is vitally important that you read it. It concerns the effects of the Srivani's hyper-stimulation of your reproductive system and the limits of our medical techniques in attempting to counteract these effects. I need to make you aware of the fact that for four weeks, your contraceptive booster shot will not be effective."

Contraception? He wanted to warn her about contraception, _now_? There was no way she could even begin to think about things like that right now. For a moment she was stunned the Doctor believed it was necessary to give her this information immediately. Then she acknowledged he was simply doing his job, and would be neglecting his responsibilities if he didn't inform her straight away.

The fact remained that she needed to get out of this sterile environment, however, before she hit something or someone. She'd been contained and restrained for three days and she now was done. "Right. Thank you, Doctor. But like I said, I _really_ do need to go."

He nodded, stood aside and watched her leave.

* * *

><p>XxX<p>

* * *

><p><span>B'Elanna Torres's quarters<span>

B'Elanna and Tom were lying entwined on the sofa in her quarters. She had just finished telling him everything the Doctor had told her. B'Elanna had watched his face as he took it all in, convinced she could see the cogs turning in his mind, as he considered all the possible ramifications of the information she was sharing with him.

"So, if we'd taken a few more days to find you, then the Doc thinks you'd have been pregnant? With triplets or something?"

"Yes. He thinks it's unlikely they would have just fertilised and re-implanted one single embryo."

"Wow."

"I'm not sure 'wow!' really covers it."

"No." Tom's hand rubbed her back in wonderful soothing patterns. "How would you have felt about the prospect of triplets or quadruplets?"

"Well now, let's see…" She twisted to look at him. "Probably somewhere between utterly terrified and completely paralysed with fear."

"Fear? It's not like you to admit you're afraid of something."

"No, well I guess I'm making an exception here. But if you tell anyone–"

"I know, you'll rip my heart out and eat it raw in one of my burger buns."

B'Elanna studied his face for a moment, wondering how he would have coped – or not – with some of the more outlandish scenarios she'd been imagining over the past few hours.

She hadn't yet shared with him her suspicions about Janeway and Chakotay. She couldn't help but speculate that there must have been _four_ small stasis units, and that had led her imagination to create some pretty alarming scenarios along the lines of 'What if _Voyager_ had appeared a few days later?'

At one point in the last few hours she'd spent alone in her quarters, she'd found herself mesmerised by a scene from the new day-care unit her imagination had insisted on setting up. For some reason her imagination had put Ensign Lang in charge – she did always seem like a particularly caring woman. And there, sitting on the carpet looking up at Ensign Lang, was a row of little Torres/Paris, Torres/Chakotay, Janeway/Paris and Janeway/Chakotays. All about 3 years old and _all_ remarkably cute, especially the Torres/Paris contingent of course.

_Kahless! I need to stop thinking these crazy things_! She'd admonished herself. _Must be the residual effect of some super-strength hormones those damned aliens probably pumped into me._

She simply wouldn't allow herself to consider what would have happened it _Voyager_ hadn't found them at all. She didn't doubt for a minute that between them, she and Janeway would have found a way out of there somehow, even without _Voyager_'s help. They would never have been content to just sit and wait to be rescued.

She decided that it was only fair that Tom should have to face at least a shadow of the distressing thoughts she'd had to deal with for the past three days.

"And how would _you_ have felt about the prospect of your girlfriend being pregnant with triplets or quadruplets you had unintentionally fathered? Not to mention the prospect of your Captain being pregnant with another set – given that these aliens might have enjoyed a little experimentation with everything they had to work with…"

Tom's eyes widened, and his face suddenly lost that sleepy-content-just-to-cuddle-up-with-you look completely. "Now you're really scaring me, B'Elanna. Let's not even go there. Not even in jest."

"Easy for you to say," she replied as she sunk back down against him. "You wouldn't believe where my imagination has been taking me these last few days," she murmured into his chest. _No, seriously, you really wouldn't._

"So has all this put you off the idea of ever having children?' he asked.

She looked up again to meet his eyes – eyes that seemed to reflect back some of the confusing mixture of emotions this question inspired in her. Then she replied carefully, "I can't pretend I wasn't completely relieved to discover I'm not pregnant. There's no way I'm ready to have a child, Tom."

"Me neither." He began to stroke her hair. "Some days I feel like I can barely look after myself, let alone be responsible for anyone else. For another whole person. And families – well let's just say, mine wasn't exactly a great advertisement for family life."

"I doubt the Torres family was much better." She paused for a moment before she went on. "I'm just so relieved to be able to leave all those things in the future, where they belong."

Tom sighed and pulled her closer. "I love you. You do know that, don't you?"

"Yes, I do." She scooted up his chest, "Come here, my little Qa'Hom." She planted a fierce kiss on his lips.

"Now that's a new one? What the hell is a 'Qa'Hom'?"

"Well, let me see… Literally it means a small, harmless animal, but it's also used to describe a man who's so lovesick that he deserts his fellow warriors on the eve of battle to go sing romantic ballads to his mate."

"Easy on the compliments, B'Elanna. Praise like that could go to a man's head."

[TBC]


	9. Chapter 9

First Officer's quarters

His chime rang. Finally.

It'd been hours. Hours of pointless pacing, unwanted cups of tea and complete failure to read even one single page of his book.

XxX

When his away team had found Kathryn and B'Elanna, Mike Ayala had silently followed Chakotay's cue to allow him and Kathryn a few seconds of unobserved reunion.

Mike had planted himself in the doorway with his back to them and Chakotay had instinctively pulled Kathryn to him. Crushing her body against his, he had hastily run his hands over her face, her hair, her back, and kissed the top of her head – so relieved to find her whole and healthy looking – not to mention disturbingly sexy in that alien catsuit. The intense storm of relief that he found himself caught up in seemed to be affecting her too and she had embraced him forcefully in return.

However, when he'd called at her quarters soon after she'd been released from sickbay, her expression had been guarded and she had kept her distance. She'd told him she was fine – of course – and she hadn't invited him in. He'd stood there slightly awkwardly, and said he would be in his quarters if she wanted some company.

So he'd returned here, changed out of uniform and resigned himself to the fact that he'd just have to wait until she was ready to talk. More than anything she probably needed to spend some time in her own space, so she could clear her head of all the worries that must have been torturing her for those three long days and nights.

He had been hugely reassured to hear the Doctor's report that other than the extraction of eggs, which Chakotay presumed explained the human DNA their scans had detected in those units, neither Kathryn nor B'Elanna had suffered any serious physical harm. They had both sustained some bruising and a few minor injuries during their escape attempts, but according to the Doctor, those injuries had been immediately healed using the Srivani's advanced regenerative techniques.

B'Elanna and Kathryn didn't do things by halves. Three escape attempts in as many days. Chakotay felt hugely grateful to have two such remarkable women in his life. They must have suffered terribly from the anxiety inherent in their situation, but they were both tough, and he wanted to believe that whatever had gone on in that clinic, neither of them would let it get the better of them.

He'd said he would wait for Kathryn to come to him and he was a man of his word, so he had waited.

XxX

And now, finally, here she was.

She stood in the doorway for a moment, as if still undecided whether she intended to come in or whether she was there just to deliver a few more words of reassurance and retreat again.

"I'm sorry I've been so long," she said, and he felt her all too perceptive eyes searching his face.

"No need to apologise. You must have been through hell these last few days," he offered quietly, moving to one side slightly in the hopes that she would interpret that as her cue to come in.

She paused for a second, then answered his wordless invitation by crossing the threshold and heading towards the low sofa that ran under his viewport.

She was wearing something from what he still thought of as her New Earth full-body armour nightwear collection – the bluish-grey pyjamas with the long sleeved tunic style top. She hadn't worn anything from that particular range of sleepwear in the last few weeks – not around him anyway.

He went to the replicator and got them both a small glass of Irish whiskey.

When he turned, he found her in front of the viewport. As he came to stand by her side, she faced him and accepted a glass.

"I know you're worried about what they did to us, Chakotay."

In her expression he could read the depths of her compassion for his feelings. Even after everything she'd just been through, here she was, worrying about him.

There was only a small space between them, and the fingers of her right hand twitched as if they were about to reach for him, but then she curled them around her glass and looked at the amber liquid as she continued to speak.

"They didn't harm us in any obvious ways." She paused for a second. "And it turns out that they hadn't done anything yet with the eggs they'd extracted. So there was nothing sinister or alarming in those units. Looks like we got out of there just in time..."

Chakotay took a deep breath and suddenly felt like he needed to sit down. He motioned towards the sofa, placed his whiskey down on the low coffee table and sat. He exhaled. He hadn't realised until now quite how worried he'd been about what exactly might have been concealed in those innocuous looking units.

She didn't follow his cue to sit and when he looked up he found her still watching him.

"Thank you for telling me, Kathryn."

He was trying to find the right words to express just how glad he was she was back and safe, and evidently recovering from the whole nightmare ordeal when she spoke.

"Why did you lead the away team? Why didn't you send Tuvok down?"

He stared at her for a second, registering her abrupt change of direction, and his eyes flickered to the floor. Then he looked up again and replied calmly, "I did send Tuvok down, you saw him, 'front of house', remember?"

"You know what I mean, Chakotay. You were acting captain, you shouldn't have led the final extraction team. You shouldn't have left the ship."

He was kicking himself for not anticipating this – she'd wrong footed him by coming here in her pyjamas – he hadn't realised she had come to debrief him! He took a deep breath. _OK, if she wants to do this now, we'll do it now. Here. _

"I was playing to our strengths," he replied evenly.

"What happened to playing by Starfleet's rules?"

She had moved a step closer, and was standing right in front of him.

He couldn't help remember the last time she'd stood in that same spot, in her pyjamas – not these ones, but the blue silk ones with the low neckline and those pleasingly thin shoulder straps. The ones with the matching robe. It had been a very different occasion. She'd been standing exactly there, her smile more than a little sultry. Then she had shed the robe and used his shoulders to steady herself as she'd stepped across his legs to slide into his lap and claim his lips with a deliciously confident and proprietary kiss.

They hadn't talked about ship's business at all in here since their relationship had changed a few weeks back. He would have had to concede they hadn't really talked about much at all in his quarters. It seemed that social intercourse in her quarters had remained more or less what it had always been, while his had become the venue for other things entirely. He forced his attention back to the present.

She was towering over him and he stayed put, so that for once she could enjoy the advantage conveyed by superior height during a discussion of a professional nature.

Keeping his tone as measured as he could, he explained. "Look, the long range communication Tuvok and I had with their government and with the managers of those clinics taught me that although they didn't seem to share many of our values, they did seem to respond to cold hard logic. So, as I said, we played to our strengths. I needed the coolest, most logical head on the bridge if it all went south, and at that point, it was Tuvok. Hell, it's always Tuvok. So I left him on the bridge and took the decision to lead the extraction team myself. It's a decision I stand by."

"Noted," her blue eyes seemed to darken. "So next time you kick up a storm when I want to lead an away team, I'll be citing this example. And I should warn you, I have an excellent memory."

"Fair enough." He reached for his drink and took a sip.

She still wasn't making as if to sit down, but sipped her whiskey too. Then her eyes strayed to the viewport and the passing stars.

"Anything else on your mind?" he asked.

She turned back to face him. "What about a diplomatic solution?" she asked, her tone as challenging as ever.

He hadn't seen that coming either. He was just about to refer her to his log again, when she continued.

"Why didn't you make a diplomatic appeal to their government? It might have been safer. As it was, you ran the risk of them deciding to hide any evidence by 'terminating' the experiment and its subjects the minute they were aware of your team in the building. They threatened to do that when they were on _Voyager_."

"We _did_ make an appeal to their government. It's in my log. But no one was prepared to take us seriously. Not until we were able to send 'substantial evidence' proving that we'd found you in one of their clinics. Before that, they refused to believe it was possible any Srivani could be involved."

She was studying his face again and he felt his heart sinking. He _so_ wanted to get past this, so he could really find out how she was feeling. All this just felt like details – unimportant details now.

"If you want me to say I'm sorry for the way we got you out of there, _Captain_, then take a seat. It could be a while."

She glared at him, and then did just that.

Chakotay almost chuckled in response, but managed to suppress the urge just in time and took another sip of his whiskey instead. He leant back and draped his left arm along the back of the sofa and just watched her for a moment.

_Spirits_ it was good to have her back. Back on the ship, back in here. Even if she was mad at him for getting them out _the wrong way_. He shifted a little closer, making sure to still leave a small distance between them. Suppressing the instinct to reach for her hand, he slid his right hand under his thigh instead.

"So you want to take me to task for ignoring protocol by leading the away team and for not spending longer on diplomacy?"

She shrugged, but didn't reply this time. It would have been pedantic to point out that there were some serious double standards going on here. Apparently he wasn't allowed to bend the rules, whereas she could beam down with no security detail whenever she wanted…

She was looking down at her glass, sitting very still now, no longer so obviously fuming.

He dipped his head towards her a little. "If you need an apology then – I'm sorry," he offered slowly, the low pitch of his voice seeming to rouse her out of her reverie.

She looked up.

He went on, "I'm sorry you're unhappy with how I went about it. But I'm not sorry about how it all worked out."

"Neither am I." Her husky voice had lost the edge it had a few minutes ago and her eyes softened. "I've never been so glad to get back to _Voyager_."

Then her left hand came up to massage the side of her neck. Chakotay longed to take over and do the job properly. He settled for asking her the question he really wanted to know the answer to.

"How are you doing? Really?"

"I'm fine. _Really_."

Hoping that wasn't all she wanted to share, he risked a little more.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

Her eyes remained locked with his for a moment, until she replied. "Yes, I would." Then she averted her gaze and the stars seemed to have her attention again. "Perhaps if I talk about it now, I'll be able to stop thinking about it – because I _need_ to stop thinking about it all."

"OK. Then tell me."

This time he couldn't keep his hand away and before he knew it he'd reached for hers, catching it as it descended from its ineffectual massaging. She didn't withdraw but allowed him to rub his thumb gently across the soft skin between her forefinger and thumb. It felt so good to feel her skin against his again.

They sat like that for a few moments until she slowly withdrew her hand and stood again, an obvious, restless tension in her movements. She began to wander around the confines of his living quarters, her fingers slowly tracing the pattern on the throw that hung over the back of one of his chairs.

"They didn't subject us to torture or anything like that. For most of the time they left us alone in the cell together – which I'm sure for B'Elanna must have been torture enough, given how she and I had been getting along recently."

"Sounded to me like you made a pretty impressive team all the same."

"You can leave it to B'Elanna to pull out all the stops every time. She had three of those doctors in pieces the first time we tried to overpower them and when it comes to disrupting an enemy's power supply I honestly can't think of anyone I'd rather have at my side."

"I imagine she was glad to have you there too."

"I'm not so sure about that. But I intend to pay her a quick visit soon anyway, just to see how she's doing."

"She'll appreciate that. I saw her earlier, while you were still in sickbay. She seems to be holding up."

Kathryn seemed to have relaxed a little and had stopped wandering about his living quarters. She was leaning against the back of one of the chairs, a few paces away from where he was still seated on the sofa. Then after holding his gaze for a long moment she spoke.

"I know you must be wondering exactly what was in those stasis units."

Actually he wasn't. He thought she'd already explained that. But she seemed to be preparing to say something, and was looking decidedly uncomfortable, so he stared at his glass in order to allow her respite from scrutiny.

She began again. "There were two that pertained to me. One contained the eggs they'd extracted and the other contained everything they would have needed to fertilise them."

Chakotay looked up immediately.

She continued to explain, seeming to choose her words carefully, her eyes never leaving his face. "It appears they subjected both of us to extremely_ thorough_ internal examinations as soon as they'd captured and sedated us."

He was thrown into momentary confusion as he struggled to make sense of this. But it didn't actually take him that long. He wasn't about to easily forget the morning of the day that Kathryn had been abducted. It had started when she'd decided to join him in the shower, and ended up against his bathroom wall. It'd been one hell of a way to start the day, and before all this went down he'd been hoping it might become a regular occurrence.

She came to stand in front of him again and went on, "The Doctor was obliged to ask me some very… personal questions in order to establish the relevance of each of the units."

Chakotay swallowed hard.

She toyed with her whiskey glass and avoided his gaze. "He seems convinced that it would only have been a matter of hours before they would have begun trying to fertilise the eggs and would have re-implanted them – several probably."

Chakotay was speechless for a moment.

"Kathryn… I…" he eventually attempted.

She waited patiently until he managed to form a coherent question.

"Why? Did you ever find out _why_ they wanted the two of you pregnant – with multiple pregnancies?"

"No. They weren't of a mind to share their thinking with us. And I imagine we never will know now. They did all manner of horrific things to the crew when they were on board for just a few weeks last year, so maybe having the chance to do a long-term experiment meant they could get a little more ambitious."

"Who knows what else they'd have decided to try…" he mused.

"I for one am glad that I don't."

"I don't doubt it," he replied quietly.

For several minutes neither of them spoke. Chakotay was still trying to process the information she'd just given him about what the Doctor believed would have happened to her had they arrived only a few hours later. Had she suspected that was what the aliens were doing? Had she feared it?

He wondered whether everything that had happened had given her the time and space to re-think things between them. Maybe it had only ever been going to work until she had time to think about it.

She had finished her whiskey, and carefully placed the glass down on the low coffee table.

He wondered if she was about to take her leave so he tried to focus himself and begin conversation again, anxious to keep her there. "Before we left orbit, Tuvok spent an hour or so planetside with the Lav'oti VI authorities."

She sat down again, close to him, but angling her face away from him slightly.

Chakotay wasn't sure if she was still listening, but he pressed on, "Apparently, the nurse who helped you decided to come forward. So did two other employees. They've blown the whistle on everything that has been going on. The Presider on Lav'oti VI notified us that they've closed down all three clinics while they investigate these allegations. All thanks to you and B'Elanna."

"Well I'm glad some good has come of it." She sounded like she was still miles away.

"I've been kicking myself that I didn't fight you harder when you said the two of you were going to beam down alone to that bar," he admitted.

That got her attention.

He went on. "Anyone else I could just order not to go. You're the only person on the ship I can't keep safe, Kathryn. Because sometimes, you just won't listen to me."

"You're making it sound like I go looking for trouble, Chakotay!"

She looked at him in that slightly patronising and infuriating way she had that made him feel like she thought his totally legitimate concerns for her safety were just the result of some over protective streak. As if this were a weakness in his personality – something she had to gently chide him for and help him overcome. Totally obscuring the fact that the woman was about as risk-averse as the most hardened Maquis he'd ever known.

"Sometimes I can't help wishing you'd at least let me finish a sentence when I raise an objection," he replied quietly.

She almost rolled her eyes, but seemed to collect herself mid-expression and settled for pursing her lips instead. "Well, I'll try harder in future. See if I can let you finish - period."

He shot her an indulgent scowl.

She turned and looked out of the viewport to the stars again for a long quiet moment. Then she seemed to change tack again. "I think B'Elanna may suspect something."

He rubbed his chin. "Does that bother you?"

"I'm not ready to explain… this…to anyone yet, Chakotay."

So there was still a 'this'. As far as he was concerned that was good news – although it meant that both the Doc and B'Elanna were a little too well informed for his liking.

Chakotay's thoughts were jumping unhelpfully all over the place now. He wanted to keep up his end of the conversation, but he kept coming back to the revelations about what the Srivani had been about to do to Kathryn and B'Elanna.

_If we'd arrived a few days later, Kathryn would probably have been carrying my child – my children!_

He found himself staring at her in a daze. Then he shook his head a little to try and keep himself together. She'd had hours to process this information. He was at sea here, still reeling. He forced himself to focus – trying to tuck this revelation away to make sense of later when he had space to really think.

"And what about the Doc?" he asked. "Should I prepare myself for disapproving scowls or knowing winks the next time I see him?"

"He was really rather sweet about it," she replied.

"Still, I can imagine that was one uncomfortable conversation for you. I guess he was pretty shocked."

"Actually, he was surprisingly unsurprised."

"Oh?"

"He said it was about time I crossed some of the barriers that were isolating me from everyone else on board. He reminded me this could be a very long journey," she recounted. "He said he thought it was wonderful if I had found a little happiness."

"And have you?" he risked.

She answered with the hint of a smile as she immediately continued, "He also said it's about time I found some healthy methods of stress relief."

"I see," his dark eyes twinkled mischievously, "Well, glad I can be of service, ma'am."

"He's obviously speaking from a _medical_ perspective, as my Doctor. Then he gave me advice about contraception."

A soft chuckle escaped him. "You've had all the fun today, haven't you?"

He risked claiming her slender hand again. This time, far from resisting him she seemed to respond to his touch. She entwined her fingers with his, allowing him to experience again the intense physical connection that had been strengthening between them in recent weeks. He smiled at her and one side of her mouth lifted into that inimitable lopsided smile he loved so much.

"You must be very glad to be out of medical clothing and away from all things clinical," he remarked.

"So you didn't like my catsuit then? Tom seemed to appreciate them." She was positively smirking now.

"Hmph," he growled. "Paris is either a brave man or a fool – if B'Elanna ever catches him checking out anyone else he'll live to regret it." Then he dipped his head slightly as he spoke again. "Anyway, I'm glad you don't wear anything like that on duty or I'd never get any work done."

She drew back a little, and replied, a hint of accusation creeping in, "So does that mean I should avoid sending you on missions that involve working closely with Seven?"

"Seven?"

"Well if you're saying the catsuit hinders your concentration…"

"It's how I _feel_ about what's in the catsuit, Kathryn. Do you need me to spell it out for you?"

"Maybe I do," she replied, her husky voice carrying an enticing hint of both the playful and the provocative.

She flushed noticeably and he decided to take this opportunity to spell it out really clearly. She wasn't the only one whose emotional restraint mechanisms had been pushed to their limits by the events of the last three days.

With the hand that had been resting along the back of the sofa, he gently took hold of her chin, guided her face towards his and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. He pulled back a fraction, and seeing that her eyes were still closed, he moved in once more to kiss her again, this time more deeply. When the kiss finally ended she rested her forehead against his.

They were quiet for a few moments, the feel of her lips still registering on his. The tension still being generated by their joined hands was giving him a heightened awareness of every nerve ending where his skin touched hers. He felt as well as heard her sigh as she rested there against him. Then she drew back. Avoiding his gaze now, she withdrew her hand to fold both hers in her lap.

He suspected she was chiding herself for having allowed the undeniable connection they shared to distract her from sticking to whatever agenda she had come in with.

She took a shaky breath and this time her voice came low and almost mournful. "This… it complicates everything. You know that."

"Maybe," Chakotay conceded. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her downturned face. "But that isn't to say I think we should stop – because I don't."

She looked up and he gave her a soft smile. Her eyes were filled with barely disguised longing.

"Chakotay, I… I have to go…"

If she hadn't just been through hell for three days, he would have pressed for her to stay, but right now he didn't feel right about persuading her to do anything she didn't want to.

He had to believe there would be other opportunities to have this conversation in full. He was damned if he'd let her finish what they'd begun in such a peremptory fashion, with these two half-sentences.

Seconds later she rose and silently exited his quarters, leaving him staring out of the viewport at the streaking stars, as she had been earlier.

As his eyes let go of each blur of light, he allowed himself to acknowledge somewhere deep within his soul the true extent of his feelings for her. There was little point in trying to suppress or deny them any longer.

The fact that public displays of romance weren't possible in the situation they found themselves in here hadn't mattered to him. What mattered was being able to express to her the love that he felt. He couldn't deny her assertion that it complicated everything, but for him, it wasn't reason enough to try and silence his heart. She had been responsible for getting it beating again when she'd introduced the possibility of a little experimentation between them weeks ago.

He sighed and stood heavily. As he made his way towards his bedroom, he forced himself to try and think positively. He reflected upon the fact that at least he might finally get some sleep now he knew she was safely back on _Voyager…_ then again that was only if he ever managed to stop thinking about all the things Kathryn had just told him.

His bedroom was too still, too empty.

He sat down on the bed and rubbed a hand across his face, then stared at the wall.

For the second time since being thrown into this impossible quadrant he was faced with the prospect of an almost-child – fathered without his knowledge or his consent. One day, it would be nice to be allowed to go about fathering a real child in a more traditional manner.

More than once recently he'd caught himself daydreaming about a future where they made it back in one piece. A future where he saw himself settled. With her. Somehow all the alien madness of the past three days was making those images move a little more clearly into focus.

[TBC]


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's ramble: **Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed. I really appreciate the encouragement.

Big thank you to the ever-patient and understanding northernxposure, who acted as the much needed voice of reason, gently steering me away from some of my more bonkers ideas for this story. I am profoundly grateful.

I'd already written 99% of it before I started posting, so I only had to edit down each chapter and send them for beta reading - that's how I was able to post daily. I do realise that if I'd left it longer in between posting each chapter, it would have reached a wider audience etc. but unfortunately, my obsessive tendencies meant that once I'd started this one, I was like a thing possessed. It took over my whole life until it was finished. And then I just needed to stick it all up before I got the sack or Mr Hissy divorced me.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 10<span>

B'Elanna Torres's quarters

"Captain," B'Elanna checked her reaction to conceal the better part of her surprise as she saw who was at her door. "Come in."

She was convinced both of them were acutely aware of the fact that the last time Janeway had called on her in her quarters in the wake of the Crell Moset incident, B'Elanna hadn't done much to make her welcome.

"Thank you, B'Elanna. I hope I'm not intruding."

"No – no, come in." She threw a quick glance around the room, hoping it didn't look too bad. "Can I… get you anything?"

"No, thank you. I won't disturb you for long." Janeway entered and stood slightly awkwardly in the middle of the room. "I just wanted to check in – see how you are doing today."

"I appreciate your concern, Captain, but I'm fine. I'm ready to go back to work as soon as beta shift starts."

"That's good. But I wasn't asking after your physical fitness for work, B'Elanna. I just wanted to check you were_ feeling_ all right, after everything you were forced to deal with."

"I'm just glad we're travelling at warp and we've already put some serious distance between us and that colony. Right now I just want to get back in the engine room and make sure Vorik and Seven haven't done any _reorganising_ in the name of 'efficiency' or more 'logical working practices' while I was gone."

Janeway smiled. "Well, Seven certainly isn't one to hold back if she has an idea that will improve efficiency. I'm sure anything she's done can be reversed. But let's hope you find it exactly as you left it."

The Captain circled B'Elanna's dining table, her eyes wandering over the place settings. Then she looked up and B'Elanna felt the weight of her gaze again. "Please don't think I'm unaware of how hard it was for you, stuck in there with me, after everything that had happened before we were abducted."

"Actually, Captain, I think it helped me put all of that into perspective. "

"May I ask how?"

"Well I still can't say I'm happy about your decision to let Moset operate on me, and I can't honestly say I regret encouraging Tom to go against your orders. But I had a lot of time to think in that cell. And one of the things I decided was that it was time to draw a line under all that and move on."

"I'm very glad you feel that way."

"You're my commanding officer and that means that you'll sometimes make decisions that I don't agree with. But I can learn to live with that."

"So no more Klingon incense, to chase away interfering captains?"

"You can relax. I won't be summoning any demons to take my revenge on you."

Janeway cocked her head to one side and smiled. "That's good to know. I also wanted to tell you how much you impressed me with your stamina, your skills and your persistence. Not everyone could have dealt with that situation anything like as well as you did, B'Elanna."

"Thank you, Captain. I'm just glad none of our escape attempts ended up with you seriously injured or worse. Chakotay would never have forgiven me."

"I imagine Tom must be very glad to have you back in one piece," Janeway remarked quickly.

"I know he is. And Chakotay already came to check on up me, clucking like a mother hen."

"Yes, he said. Although he didn't admit to any clucking."

B'Elanna folded one arm over the other, hugging her body as she spoke. "Tom's been sticking to me like Neelix's gravy ever since we got back. It was actually a relief when his duty shift started." Then she watched Janeway for a moment, before adding, "You know, in some ways I think it must have been harder for them, not knowing whether we were dead or alive."

Janeway looked away and then replied quietly, "Yes. I think maybe it was. Well, I'm glad you're doing all right, B'Elanna."

B'Elanna hesitated a little before making her next remark. "I don't know about you, but I've been having some pretty crazy thoughts about what might have happened if we hadn't gotten out of there when we did."

Janeway's eyes betrayed her for a second. B'Elanna felt sure the other woman knew all too well the sorts of bizarre images that had been plaguing her.

"As captain I probably shouldn't be admitting my fears to a member of my crew, but I won't deny that this experience has been harder than most to process. Rest assured you aren't the only one whose imagination has come up with some rather… _extreme_ scenarios in the last few hours."

"I'm not used to feeling fear, but this situation had part of me – the human part I guess – completely terrified," B'Elanna confessed.

The two women stood in silence for a few seconds. Then, for the sake of her friend, B'Elanna decided to push some boundaries a little here. "Tom and I had lunch today with Harry and Chakotay. Chakotay was very quiet."

"Well, you know the captain's job isn't always all it's cracked up to be."

B'Elanna didn't respond to the quip but went on. "Maybe it's him you should be checking up on. Like I said, in some ways I think it was harder on them."

Janeway looked a little thrown, but seemed to collect herself within seconds. "Well, yes, I'm sure the last few days have left more than a few frayed nerves."

She moved towards the door and paused just in advance of the activation pads, turning to catch B'Elanna's eye again. "I'll leave you to enjoy the last of your free time. And if you ever want to talk, my door is always open."

"Thank you, Captain. I'll keep that in mind. But right now I just want to forget about the whole nightmare.

"I don't doubt it."

* * *

><p>XxX<p>

* * *

><p><span>First Officer's quarters <span>

Chakotay half opened an eye. He was sprawled half on his front, half on his side, one arm round a pillow that had slid down beside him in the bed.

He thought he'd heard something – the hiss of a door opening maybe?

A few seconds later he was aware of her, silhouetted in the faint starlight at the foot of his bed.

Then he heard a rustle and felt the bed take a little extra weight.

He turned onto his back and watched her slide under the covers. He felt her cool body wrap itself around him. He smiled, and brought his arm to rest across her back, his hand cupping her hip. At the same time he felt her leg slot in between his, and one of her small hands slide under his shoulder. The fingers of her other hand spread out and moved up his chest, coming to rest over his heart.

Although his thoughts were still fuzzy with sleep, he felt a flush of tenderness for her and a powerful surge of relief. He kissed the top of her head as it settled under his chin.

A few seconds passed peacefully and then she shifted a little further across him.

"It's too late," she said, just above a whisper.

He knew she wasn't talking about the fact it must have been at least three in the morning.

"I know," he replied.

xxx

"What will we do?" Kathryn asked.

"We'll do this. Whenever we can," his rich tones came soft and low as he looked down on her through half-closed eyelids. He pulled her closer still.

She stretched up and gently kissed his full lips.

They lay entwined, his steady breathing the only audible sound above the familiar low hum of the ship's engines decks beneath them. Kathryn smiled against his warm skin –_ if only things were really so simple_.

"And when we make it back?" she asked.

"We'll still do this. And more."

[The End]


End file.
